




i. 





V S' 


^“' A«' ,, '"?//* .oTo _ ' 

<P \V 


v^ 


1} SkT^U 










.0 c 



r^' 


N (. 






^ V ^ 



> 


‘•^ CL^ 


V » 



'■ '^' I '5'’ : 

b ■’bA V^ 




'> N 


o'* = 

.4 -n. ^ 

vY- ^ 


\\ 

> ^ 0 r 


o». 

* ’^r> \V ^ 

'- .v-P* » 








c> 




■^' V. 




0 


*< 


’V _^'C. 

,( <' ^ v , , S <\ ^ -k ‘/'r 

c®'^ "<■ /-^ “■ a'^ «' '» 

>* 

d^ A5 . ' » ,''^ > ^ d 

y^jLy'yy v^ »'“'>/ '> o ' ^ 

^ ,\ * A ^ -b- c.'i . 

> ^-Crv 




•f 

\x Y O' 

c4f O 4 >- 

■ V ^ 

^ g , ^ 



a\>’ o 


c^* * 

««'•'■ A'^ . I , '^f. ' » 



’/'*'*’ .0 N n ’’ AX^' *■ ^yy ^ yy « 

A' rdX /)k o ' , e'X ■ a °- 





C,*^ 

^ '> vi>. 




</> 

V- . ^ 4'' y My ^ y %■ '. I 

,0 1 A ^ ^ o li V ^ '' 






v' 



' ' '/ C- \ ' ^ ‘ ^ ^ , V ^ 

^ -ti '^‘ Vi /I ^ /a*A <4- 



V* aY* 

t/^ 



* Ci_$ ^ V<=3i|Vii=^' '■ ,v 

■* ON 0 ..s' .\^ 

-0^ ."!JL o'" 

-tt ► *> 

xO “ 


■fe 

'«■>''' 'a\^ . I ' « < ' ” ” 

X® '^. ' ° Y*- 

O g;> \K>i~^ <* <L' c^ 

V'^\<-., ,oA-' 

.\'^^’ ° 'if/' '^§.W * • V 

•'^ , , , '^7-* ^ “ ‘ ' ■‘ n N 

00\» 

•C ^ 




Si- 


CD 


0 <1 I, '*' ^0 <. '■- , 4 „ s s .• 

(-O' .-x^ v" 


^ ■> , 

'I -r ^ ^ *' 





X * 0 ^ 



-•■V •^. 


^IJ/% = "Y- -■ 

' Jn '^- * 

6 \ V <A 

^ ^ ^ .V 

s'* \ ' • » '^/-> ^ o <i 'i ^ A s r < 1^ * '» 

^ I 0 * , 

; ^A : 


H, c 

..■^ •' o 0^ ^ 

->' \ V yC^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 

%• -d^ ^b ' 

''> lO^ "'''‘L!" '^y 



S • “ / °^r ^ ’’ fs “ ‘ iX^'.!. ■• * ® ^ 




I 


I 


\ 










i 


, ■ ■ ■ I 

' I 


‘ n »• 


f • 


*• " ■ ‘ , * ,4' ‘ ' • 






1 1 * , * » 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 
















A WIFE OUT OF 

EGYPT 


NORMA® LORIMER 

AUTHOR OF 

THE WATERS OF GERMANY,’^ BY THE WATERS OP SICILY,” 
THE SECOND WOMAN,” ETC. BTC. 


9 

» 3 

-» > 
i ^ 



NEW YORK 

BRENTANO’S 

1914 



PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN 


PREFACE 


Egypt, like Tunis, is still inhabited by a race, neither 
numerous nor powerful now, which has seen all the 
dynasties of history come and go. The Copts — an Arab 
way of saying Egyptians: Egypt is the land of Gypts 
or Copts — are the descendants of the men who hewed 
wood and drew water for the Pharaohs, for conquerors 
like Darius the Persian, the Macedonian Ptolemies, the 
Romans, and the Arabs, and are the intellectual hewers 
and drawers of modern Egypt. Like the Berbers of 
Tunis, they were mightily oppressed by Roman and 
Byzantine masters for not coming into the orthodox 
religion ; like the Berbers, they thought that their lot 
could not be worse under the Arab conqueror, and stood 
by sullenly while their masters were conquered, though 
their help would have made the Arab conquest impossible. 

The Arabs persecuted them in their turn, to make them 
abandon the feeble and impure stream of Christianity 
which had trickled down to them direct from St. Mark 
the Evangelist. But by living like rats in holes, the 
Copts have defeated their purpose, and remain the pro- 
fessors of the most ancient and debased form of Christianity, 
but the spiritual descendants, in their own eyes, of the 
Church of Egypt, immortal as the offspring of St. Mark, 
and the mother of Athanasius and Cyril and Origen. 

Until the Nationalist movement began in the revolt of 
Arabi Pasha, the Copts or Egyptians and the Arabs kept 
distinct, but they now all call themselves Egyptians, to 
1 


2 


PREFACE 


prosecute the claim for Egyptian Independence, which is 
in reality a Pan-Islamic movement into which the Copts 
have been betrayed. Girgis Boutros, who is one of the 
chief characters in the story, a very wealthy leader of the 
Copts, has been entrapped in this way, owing to his 
hatred of the English. 

Side by side with the Copts there is another Arab- 
speaking Christian community in Egypt, a much fairer 
and handsomer race, who might often be taken for Euro- 
peans — ^the Syrians. Unlike the Copts, who rarely rise 
above the position of clerks and book-keepers, they are 
important in the mercantile community and many of 
them are very wealthy ; and unlike the Copts, they are 
firm supporters of the British rule, though they are galled 
by the unwillingness of the English to receive them on 
terms of social equality. 

Hadassah Lekejian, the heroine, and her father and 
brother are typical Syrians of Egypt. 

The plot of this book deals with a subject which previous 
writers of novels about Egypt have left in the background 
— the struggle between love and snobbery in the breast 
of a British officer, who has fallen in love with the 
beautiful Syrian when he met her, without realizing what 
her nationality meant in England, and, as he meets her 
again in Cairo in the position of her fiance, discovers that 
she is a member of the ostracized race. 

This ostracism is described by Miss Lorimer most con- 
vincingly and pitifully. While the reader's feelings are 
stirred by the beautiful Hadassah's struggle between love 
of her people and her love for the proud Englishman who 
insists that she shall give her people up, his interest is 
riveted on the forces which are working in Egypt — 
the revengeful Copt's hereditary tendency to betray his 
fellow-Christians to Islam, and the heartburnings of the 
Arab-speaking loyalists of Egypt at their social exclusion 
by the rulers they serve so faithfully. 


PREFACE 


3 


Miss Lorimer has long been a student of both Coptic 
and Mohammedan questions. Her knowledge and in- 
tuition with regard to the latter was amply shown in her 
masterly book “ By the Waters of Carthage."" 

I have no hesitation in pronouncing this a far finer 
book, immeasurably more interesting as a love story, and 
full of the psychology which Miss Lorimer has taught us 
to expect in her books. 

In “ A Wife out of Egypt,"" Miss Lorimer has intro- 
duced to fiction a singularly beautiful and gifted nation, 
the Syrians, brought up as Europeans, who are white 
people in everything but race. 


Douglas Sladen. 











A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


CHAPTER I 

A TAXI-CAB drew up sharply at No. 123, Princes Avenue, 
South Kensington. It had come down the long, straight 
road at a speed which certainly did not come within the 
city limit of twelve miles an hour. Out of it jumped a 
slim girl in rich furs and a young man in faultless afternoon 
dress. 

They were a good-looking couple, with the pride of life 
so strong in them that more than one pair of eyes looked 
enviously at them as they passed. 

The girl held out her hand to say good-bye: it was 
perfectly gloved in pale yellow su^de. The perfection of 
her feet was noticeable, too, for they were encased in 
patent-leather walking-slippers, whose costly buckles 
flashed in the electric light. These two points, her light 
hands and shining feet, stood out in the half-lit street. 
AU the rest of her was lost in the rich darkness of her 
furs. It was only when she lifted her head that you could 
see the clear paUor of her skin and the youthful freshness 
of her scarlet lips, for her closely fltting hat almost hid 
her face. 

‘‘I must really go, dear," she said; “and don't wait 
for me . . . no, please don't." 

“ Why mayn't I ? " he said pleadingly. 

“ Because I should feel I had to hurry." 

“ Can't you ? " His eyes besought her. 

The girl blushed happily. “ No, it's Miss MacNaughtan, 
and I haven't seen her for almost two years. Every minute 
she can give me I'll want to be with her." 

6 


6 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


And what about me ? ... In a week's time I won't 
see you for almost a year." 

“ But, dear, I've been with you for hours and hours every 
day for the last month." 

“ I know," he said ; “ you've been awfully good, but 
I'm jealous of every one you want to see very much. . . ." 
He laughed. “ I am a duffer, I know : you'll soon grow 
tired of me." 

“ You're the nicest thing in the world," she said, “ and 
I love you for being jealous." 

‘‘ I'm jealous of that fur," he said, ‘‘ the little beast's 
mouth's quite close to your ear." He was looking at the 
tiny head of the sable which decorated her necklet of fur. 
“ I wish I had taken just one more before we left the taxi, 
you look so soft and adorable in that coat." 

The girl's proud laugh showed her gleaming teeth : their 
beauty made her lover wish to kiss her all the more. 

He had been holding her hand caressingly in his. Sud- 
denly he felt for the ring on her third finger. “ I like 
to feel it," he said, “ and think about it, and remember 
that it's there, as a sign and a token that you are mine ; 
when any other Johnny looks at your hand he knows it's 
‘ no use,' he knows he's too late. I feel quite sorry for 
them, poor beggars ! I guess they'll hover about you, 
but you're mine” he said quickly. “ Sometimes I keep 
saying to myself, ‘ Stella's mine,' ‘ Stella's mine,' ‘ Stella's 
mine,' until I burst out laughing at my own silliness." 

“ And Stella's not yours yet” she said tauntingly, 
but with so much love in her voice that he did not mind. 

Yet it made him say : “ Why can't we get married 
before you go back to Egypt, Stella? You could return 
with your parents, and I would follow later on : no one 
need know but ourselves." 

“ What would be the good of that, dear ? " 

“ To make sure of you." 

“ Don't you trust me ? " 

“ Yes, darling, and yet not quite, for I'm always afraid 
you'll find out what a brainless chap I am compared to 
yourself. You'll discover how horribly few ideas I've 
got, and how ordinary I am. You may meet the sort 
you imagine I am." 

“ And throw you over ? " 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 7 

She drew her hand out of his, determining at last to 
ring the bell. 

‘‘ I didn't say you would do that.'' 

“ I wonder which of us will be the most changed when 
we meet." Her finger was on the electric bell as she said 
the challenging words, ‘‘ Which of us will be the truest ? " 

“ I won't change," he said, ‘‘ no jolly fear. Good-bye. 
Remember I'm coming for you the very first thing in the 
morning : you've got to take me with you wherever you 
go, shopping or no shopping." 

She blew a kiss to him as the door closed. 


CHAPTER II 


Miss MacNaughtan was sitting in an indulgently com- 
fortable chair in her long drawing-room awaiting the arrival 
of her ex-pupil Esther Lekejian, or Stella Adair, as she was 
more familiarly called. 

Miss MacNaughtan, who was American by birth, Scotch 
by ancestry, and English by adoption, kept a boarding- 
school for girls in one of the most central districts of 
residential South Kensington. Her school was modern 
in theory and luxurious in its appointments. Any girl 
who lived under her guardianship for even a couple of 
years could not go away ignorant of the duties which 
would be expected of her both socially and intellectually 
as a woman of the world. 

Her school was expensive — ^you had only to take into 
consideration its charming situation (close to Kensington 
Gardens, and within a quarter of an hour's walk of one 
of the most fashionable London churches), and the air 
of luxury which pervaded the establishment, to gauge 
that the cost of a single pupil seldom came out at less 
than three hundred a year. But these hundreds did not 
matter — and Miss MacNaughtan was aware of it — to the 
class for whom she ran the school : money was of little con- 
sideration. Wealthy Canadians and wealthier Americans 
were willing to pay twice the sum she demanded to 
have their daughters in her establishment. Miss Mac- 
Naughtan knew quite well that if a man could 
afford to give his daughter £300 worth of furs for a 
Christmas present, which often happened, it was not 
likely he would object to paying almost the same amount 
for her year's education. 

Yet in spite of the luxury, and freedom, and extreme 
modernity of the school, the girls were not spoilt. If a 
girl was nice when she came to Miss MacNaughtan, she 

8 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


9 


was much nicer when she left her ; if she was horrid when 
she arrived she was far less horrid when she went away. 

There was a saying that Miss MacNaughtan never took 
ugly girls ; that, as she could pick and choose, she always 
chose in favour of good looks. This was not the case ; 
but as she had a genius for discovering the good points 
in even her worst pupils, she had also a genius for teaching 
them how to make the best of their looks. She could not 
bear stupidity ; she declared that no woman who used 
her wits need ever look plain. No woman can make her- 
self beautiful, but every woman can make herself attractive. 

Miss MacNaughtan surrounded her girls with beauty, 
and she demanded of them their utmost to add to it. If 
she charged their parents highly, she never grudged her 
pupils anything which appealed to her imaginative nature 
as likely to produce the best results in their talents. 

Her school was ‘‘ a very garden of girls,'" a garden full 
of healthy, beautiful flowers. It was her hobby. She 
loved watching their mental development and increasing 
physical beauty, as a gardener loves watching the results 
of his lavish toil. 

When the drawing-room door opened, and the old 
butler announced “ Miss Lekejian," Miss MacNaughtan 
rose from her deep-seated chair with the alacrity of a 
girl in her teens. She held out her arms, and Stella 
flew into them. For a moment neither of them spoke, 
for the girl was in tears — tears of sheer joy at flnding 
herself once more in the dear old room, surrounded by the 
dear familiar objects, and in the arms of her darling 
‘‘ Naughtie." 

With tears very near her own eyes Miss MacNaughtan 
loosened her embrace and held the girl back from her. 
She looked at her carefully, and then pulled her face 
towards her own again and kissed it. ‘‘ Just what I 
expected, dear." 

The girl gave a slight start. Had she guessed her 
secret, did she know that she had dared to love some one 
whom ‘‘ Naughtie " had never seen, after the thousands 
of times she had said that she must find her a lover, 
because she always discovered the best and nicest sort of 
people in the world ? A little nervously she said : What 
did you expect ? Am I not a credit to you ? " 


10 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


Miss MacNaughtan laughed at her rather anxious face. 

“ I expected beauty and tenderness and passion, and I 
have found it."" She led the girl to a sofa whose cushioned 
seat was so deep and ample that they sank into it as 
though it were a feather mattress. 

With a motherly laugh Miss MacNaughtan wiped the 
tears from her ex-pupihs face. 

Oh ! Naughtie, I knew I"d do nothing but cry when 
I saw you, and now that everything is just the same — 
this heavenly sofa, the bowls of red roses, and the beloved 
pictures, and the cool walls, and oh ! just everything, 
I want to go on crying more than ever."" 

“ But, Stella, you"ve had a lovely time, you"ve been 
presented to four queens and seen almost aU the world, 
and . . ."" 

She stopped, for the girl said : ‘‘ Nearly all the world, 
but not my own country ; I w"ouldn"t go there. I wouldn"t 
go to it as a globe-trotter or as a tourist — I"ve kept 
it."" 

Miss MacNaughtan dropped her eyes as the girl went on. 

‘‘ And, after all, you"ve been there without me. It was 
too bad : you promised to keep Egypt until I could receive 
you there in my own home, until I could teach you all 
that I knew."" 

Miss MacNaughtan stroked the absurdly slender hand 
in the yellow suede glove and said : “ The opportunity 
came, and I took it — ^you know Vm very extravagant, 
I put little away, and a trip up the Nile costs money."" 

The girl smiled. “ It certainly does as you would do it."" 

Miss MacNaughtan laughed. “ Has my very extrava- 
gant pupil come back to teach me economy ? "" As she 
spoke, she let her eyes fall on the soft little muff, a mere 
handful of sables which an experienced eye could tell 
represented a very large sum of money, and at the exquisite 
gown of subtle colouring and delicate handicraft. 

The girl stopped her. “ You"re not really extravagant, 
but you do love beauty and comfort. I"ve been in places 
and eaten food that you would shudder to think of. 
To-day I put on all my newest rags for your benefit. 
I8ii"t this a ridiculous muff ? "" She held out her hand, and 
over it hung at least a dozen sables. ‘‘ They make quite 
a good mat if you lay them out flat : the real muff"s here."" 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 11 

She turned it over : a little pouch just large enough for her 
two hands was under the sables. 

“ One of the parents paid for everything. I took his 
two daughters up the Nile as far as Abu Simbel."^ 

The girFs eyes shone. ‘‘ Was it glorious ? IVe seen 
Abu Simbel in my dreams a thousand times ; did you 
love it ? Did you enjoy Cairo ? I'm burning to go 
there." Her face flushed, for her mind flew to the fact 
that her secret was still unconfessed, and that he was to 
be quartered in Cairo next winter. ‘‘ Did you meet any of 
my people — my cousin Girgis ? His mother has a hig house 
in Cairo ; I can just remember its lovely Arab hall." 

She was looking at her old schoolmistress eagerly, and 
as she looked a little note of anxiety crept into her voice. 
“ Why do you look like that, Naughtie ? Were you 
not happy in Egypt ? Did it overpower you ?— you 
always said it would. Were you disappointed ? " 

Miss MacNaughtan laughed as though it was a relief 
to And something that would relax the expression of her 
face which the girl had noticed. ‘‘ No, dear, I was not 
disappointed. ... I can't imagine the mind that could 
be disappointed with the Nile, and the Nile means Egypt. 
You can as well imagine the mind that would be disappointed 
with God. Egypt is omnipotent, Egypt is the beginning 
and the end of all things." 

“ Then why do you evade my eyes ? " The girl pulled 
her teacher's face towards her. Their eyes met. 

‘‘ Did I, dear ? Then I'll look into yours and tell you 
what I And in them." 

‘‘ No, no," she said, ‘‘ not yet . . . not yet. . . . Tell 
me first why you didn't like Egypt." 

But I did like Egypt." 

“ Then tell me what you wish to hide about Egypt ? " 

Miss MacNaughtan laughed her kind, warm, natural 
laugh. “ How my pupil has learned to dictate ! " she said 
. . . I have nothing to hide, only I think you are expect- 
ing too much . . . too much, I mean, of Cairo. You can't 
expect too much of the Nile, but remember your home is 
in Cairo, which is a very different thing." 

The girl's radiant face clouded. “ But wasn't it won- 
derful in a different way ? Are all the books untrue ? Why 
am I expecting too much ? Isn't it what Lane says — the 


12 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


most mediaeval city in the world ? I have quite for- 
gotten it, and I don^t suppose I was ever allowed to go 
into the native parts, but I have read and read about 
it until I could draw a map of the city. And then the 
things one doesn't read about — the gaiety and the pleasure- 
loving life which the people lead . . she gave a little 
sigh . . . ‘‘I love dancing ; I've become awfully frivolous, 
Naughtie." 

“ I'm so glad. Baby " : the old name slipped out from 
habit, for Stella had been given over to Miss MacNaughtan's 
care when she was only seven years old. Miss MacNaughtan 
had been urged and persuaded to take the child by a tie 
of friendship which went very deep. As a rule her youngest 
pupils were thirteen, and so, when the little star-eyed 
Stella came, she was called ‘‘ Baby," and from that day 
onwards she had been the pet and the pride of the school. 

Her father was a wealthy Syrian living in Cairo. Her 
mother, who was Irish by birth, determined that her 
child should be educated in Europe, and so, through the 
influence of an old friend who had helped Miss MacNaughtan 
in her younger days, Stella was received into Miss Mac- 
Naughtan's school. Every summer her father and mother 
had come to England and had taken their only daughter 
for her holidays either to Scotland, or to the high hill- 
towns of Italy, or to France — ^it was generally to whatever 
spot in the Western world the girl had set her heart upon 
seeing. The rest of her holidays she had spent with Miss 
MacNaughtan, or with some friend of Miss MacNaughtan's 
if Miss MacNaughtan could not have her, and, when she 
was old enough, with chosen school-friends. The girl 
who was lucky enough to carry off Stella Adair as holiday 
visitor wore a sort of halo in the school for the next term. 
And it was indeed a distinction to secure Stella, for in her 
later years at school she could always have remained with 
Miss MacNaughtan, whom one and all of the school adored. 
The lucky recipient of Stella's favour felt that to have 
enjoyed her society for six long weeks when she could 
have been alone with their adored “ Naughtie " was 
placing her own merits on a very high level. 

Stella was all that a school demands of its leader. She 
was beautiful, or so they thought ; she was high-spirited, 
she was clever and imaginative. But it was her extra- 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


13 


ordinary gift of languages (a gift which they did not 
know belonged to her as a birthright from her race) 
which placed her on the altar of genius. While the most 
ambitious girls worked and toiled and took every oppor- 
tunity of conversing with the various governesses in 
French, German, and Italian, in all of which languages Miss 
MacNaughtan endeavoured to make her pupils perfectly at 
home before they left her establishment, Stella spoke them 
as if by instinct. Her parents talked Italian to her during 
her holidays in Italy, though they spoke Arabic in their 
home life, and she had spent long summers with them in 
Germany. At school her nurse was French. Her weekly 
letters from home were always in Arabic. During her 
tour round the world, which she had just accomplished with 
her parents, she had insisted upon speaking Arabic, for 
she was distressed to find that she had become almost a 
stranger to the spoken language. The classic language 
which is used in writing is scarcely understood by the 
uneducated classes or by any class who have only heard 
the spoken language. Of Syria she rarely thought. Egypt 
had been the land of her people for many generations, yet 
of modern and social Egypt she knew nothing. She could 
study its mysteries and its cults in museums or in books. 
She was no mean archaeologist. For years she had attended 
classes at the London College, and she had paid generous 
fees to the best lady guides who conduct strangers round 
the Egyptian portion of the British Museum. 

Miss MacNaughtan knew nothing or very little about 
ancient Egypt. In her brief tour up the Nile she had felt 
its spell and reverenced its omnipotence, but her fort- 
night's residence in Cairo had taught her many things 
which hurt her big nature when she thought of her charming 
pupil and how bitterly her years of waiting for the land of 
her adoption were to be repaid — things which now seemed 
to her the most evil sarcasm when she looked at the 
beautiful woman by her side. 

She had learned that in Cairo, Stella, the pride of her 
school, the baby of her motherless heart, the child 
whom she had reared to such splendid womanhood, would 
be to aU intents and purposes a social outcast. She had 
learned that a horrible deception had been practised on 
the girl who had been reared in the belief that for her life 


14 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


would be a splendid thing, that the lavish expenditure 
of money, affection, and social training which had been 
bestowed upon her was to fit her for a life which 
would make great demands upon her intellectually as 
well as socially. During her life at school she had grown 
accustomed to a well-merited adoration. All this now 
struck the woman who had mothered her and guarded 
her as an act of cruelty ; she had been educated and 
cultivated for no reason on earth than to cause her suffering. 

Miss MacNaughtan said nothing of all that was passing 
in her own mind. The girl but repeated the words “ Half 
of my nature's awfully frivolous." 

‘‘ I am so glad, dear ; it's a great gift. A frivolous woman 
with an intellectual mind is a delightful thing. When 
girls can't be frivolous I'm always afraid ; they generally 
do foolish things. They become cranks or marry un- 
desirables." 

“ Naughtie, how like you ! What principles you 
teach ! " 

They both laughed. 

All I know is, dear," the older woman said, “ that 
amongst all my pupils it's not the very serious ones who 
have turned out best, or made the happiest wives and 
mothers. I always think twice before I allow a serious 
girl any liberty, or let her drive home from a party alone 
with a man in a taxi." 

“ Had you ever any trouble with me ? " 

‘‘ Not in that way, dear," Miss NacNaughtan laughed. 
“ I'd be sorry for the man who tried." 

The girl hugged her lovingly. “ It was because you 
trusted me so completely : you can't think how awful it 
was to feel what cads we were when we did deceive you." 

The girl rose from her deep-bedded seat on the sofa. 

I love your black cushions. They're new, aren't they ? 
And the black carpet — how clever you are about colour ! 
This room's like a cool garden with roses and green 
lawns." She pulled Miss MacNaughtan out of her seat. 
‘‘ You're so modernly-ancient, with all the old furniture 
and the classic statues and these touches of modern 
purples and blacks ! " 

The girl gazed round the room. ‘‘ It's delightful, but 
. . she sighed, I hate to see anything new in it 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


15 


since I was here. These purple cushions are divine — they're 
like petunias, but . . . but . . she paused, it shows 
how long IVe been away. It was all rose du Barri and grey 
when I left . . . the scheme of colour I mean . . . these, 
of course, never change. . . She swept her hand towards 

the water-colours, and photographs and prints of the best- 
known ancient masters. “ What a dear room for girls to 
live in, Naughtie ; and I took it all for granted . . . but 
now that I've stayed for weeks and weeks in vulgar hotels 
and poor inns and pensions, I can realize all that you 
gave us. But do come and let me go over every inch of 
the house. ... I must pay a visit to the kitchens. Are 
they all here stiU ? I spoke to ‘ Clarkie ' " (Clarkson was 
the name the butler had been compelled to adopt because 
he wore a wig : Stella had labelled him Clarkson," and 
Clarkson he had had to remain). “ And Bridget and Mina ? " 

‘‘ Yes, they're all here, and all very excited about your 
return. My servants never seem to want a change, they 
stay on and on." 

The girl laughed. “ I shouldn't think they did want 
a change : you over-feed them, and over-pay them, and 
over-consider them." 

“ But they do their work." 

They would be fools if they didn't, they have so little 
to do ; and they know that even though you spoil people, 
Naughtie, you mean them to do their duties." 

“ Have I spoilt you ? Are my girls spoilt ? " 

The girl turned swiftly round and impulsively hugged 
her. “No, they're not; and I hope I'm not. But oh, 
Naughtie, how I've wanted to meet some one as vital 
and alive and keen as you are ! Mother's a darling, 
but," the girl sighed, “you've spoilt all other women for 
me." 

Miss MacNaughtan laughed. “ But not other men ; and 
after all, I've some claim to the biggest portion of the 
affection you've got in your nature for women." 

Over the girl's face a warmer tint dyed the pale, pure 
skin. “ Come and let's look at my bedroom," she said, 
“ and the blue drawing-room — is it stiU blue ? " Miss 
MacNaughtan nodded in the affirmative — “ and the con- 
cert-hall ! Oh, how lovely ! " she said, as she followed 
Miss MacNaughtan into the blue drawing-room. It was 


16 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


still blue certainly, but glorious touches of colour had 
been added to it since Stella's day, and a frieze of old 
Japanese prints, whose predominating note was orange, 
ran all round the room at a level with the girl's eyes. 

With a look of almost reproach she turned to her former 
instructress, who felt compelled to excuse herself. 

“ My dear," she said, “ they didn't cost nearly as much 
as you are supposing. I took a collection from some one 
who owed me a bad debt. I should never have got the 
money, so I thought I might as well have the prints. 
We have had such a delightful series of lectures on Japanese 
art and literature, both this winter and last. I became 
acquainted with a Japanese professor, who is Just ekeing 
out enough money to keep himself in London while he is 
making a special study of a particular period in English 
history. I pay him a ridiculously small fee for lecturing 
to my girls once a week ... he says it helps him, and 
I've set the fashion, for he's given several lectures in 
private drawing-rooms." 

The girl put her arm again through Miss MacNaughtan's. 
“ Naughtie, why did I ever grow up ? I do so want to 
come back. ... I want the wonderful mixture of intel- 
lectual food and humanity that you put into life. I 
shall hate the girls who are getting all these things I've 
passed away from." 

But, dear, you're coming into so much, you can do 
and see anything you care about." 

‘‘ But it's your mind and vitality that suggests and 
invests these things with such interest. Other people let 
things slip past, other people live in grooves ; I know I'll 
do the same." 

Miss MacNaughtan looked at her. “ I don't think you 
will, honey; but if you do, remember grooves are very 
comfortable things. I have to think out these things. 
I have to keep very wide awake, that's to say, if I don't 
want to become a typical ‘ school maarm,' whom every one 
fears and shuns. I like living luxuriously, and so I made 
up my mind, when I had to keep a school, to keep a luxur- 
ious and modern one, to keep one which would always 
be a beautiful landmark in my girls' lives. They pay a 
lot, dear; I can afford to give a lot! And I never find 
that they abuse it ; with the gymnasium to let off steam in, 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 17 

they can very well afford to behave decently in the rooms 
I make pretty for their benefit/" 

When they had wandered over the house, even into 
the kitchen, where Bridget and Mina, her niece, now the 
second housemaid, received Stella with as much awe 
and admiration as though she were a royal princess, they 
returned to the drawing-room, where an inviting tea of 
various sorts of hot cakes and extravagant sandwiches 
awaited them. 

‘‘ Do the girls come back to-morrow ? "" (it was the close 
of the Christmas holidays) Stella asked, as they sank 
again into the big sofa nearest the log fire. 

‘‘ Yes, one or two to-night."" Miss MacNaughtan handed 
the girl a dish of sandwiches as she spoke. . . . My pet 
sandwiches, Naughtie, and you remembered. . . 

Their eyes met laughingly. 

“ Say you don't remember all your ex-pupils" pet sand- 
wiches and tea-cakes 1 "" Her lovely eyes took in with a 
quick glance the American buckwheat cakes and the 
home-made stoned-raisin cake she adored. ‘‘If it"s only 
a part of your marvellous memory and talent for remem- 
bering the idios 5 mcrasies and appetities of your pupils, 
they won"t taste half as nice."" 

Miss MacNaughtan laughed. “ Oh ! my dear, my dear, 
you do want all or nothing, don"t you ? . . . It wasn"t 
likely that I was going to forget my baby"s ‘ wicked 
tastes," "" she laughed again. ‘‘ Even at nine years old it 
cried for stuffed olives in its sandwiches, and the backs 
of pheasants for breakfast, and fdtis de fois gras for its 
Sunday supper . . . what a baby it was ! . . . and now ! "" 
She looked tenderly at the girPs laughing face : her small, 
white teeth, as beautiful and even as a row of perfectly 
matched pearls, were pressing their way with a nice 
exactitude into a sandwich of brown bread and butter 
and olives stuffed with chillies. 

“ They are frightfully good, Naughtie,"" she said. 
“ I was so afraid they would be like some of the books 
which you thought were exquisitely naughty in your 
youth, but these are as good as ever and just as wicked."" 

Miss MacNaughtan smiled indulgently. 

“ In her youth, indeed ! "" Hadn"t she brought her up 
from babyhood to her present superb and youthful dignity 
2 


18 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


of womanhood ? . . . To hear her talk of her past youth 
while she herself felt not one day older than she had done 
when she was only the girPs age ! 

I suppose I am a very old woman at your rate of dis- 
posing of youth/^ she said, “ but I don't feel it." 

The girl looked at her. “ Do you know, Naughtie, I 
have no more idea of your age than I have of some of the 
things in the Egyptian Museum that look as though they 
had been made yesterday. ... You look about thirty- 
five, but you can't be only that, for I'm twenty-one, and 
I was fourteen years with you. You must have been more 
than twenty when I came to you." 

‘‘ A long way, dear." 

The girl pulled off her left glove very slowly. “ You 
used to make me think that I would never want to marry. 
I used to say that I would live just like you, enjoying 
men's society freely and liking them just enough and no 
more than to make life agreeable ; but lately I began to 
realize that to live like you one must he like you, and 
God has only made one ‘ Naughtie.' All other women are 
so dependent, such ‘ half things ; ' you're a ‘ whole thing.' " 

She had pulled off her glove, her hand was thrust sud- 
denly before Miss MacNaughtan's eyes, a sob broke her 
voice : “ Naughtie, I do hope you'll like him. If you 
don't, I won't marry him." 

“ My dear," the older woman said, while her arms 
clasped the girl eagerly to her. “ Has my baby found 
her other half ? ... Is she going to complete her woman- 
hood very soon ? Is she going to leave her old teacher 
far behind her ? " she strained the girl to her hungrily. 
“ Do you love him, dearie ? Is he the other half God made 
for my baby — are you sure ? " 

“ I don't know," the girl said. “ I don't really know, 
but I'm sure I love him ! " 

‘‘ But why don't you know, dear ? Don't you feel that 
the half fits into all the waiting parts of your nature, 
the places that have felt lonely ? " 

“ I don't know, I can't tell ; I don't even know if I 
understand him: but he adores me, and I love to be 
adored ! " She smiled. “ I never loved very easily, did 
I ? " 

‘‘ That you never did. What times I used to have trying 


A WIPE OUT OP EGYPT 19 

to make you even civil to people who raved about you ! 
But who is he ? 

‘‘ He's the brother of Nancy Thorpe. I've been staying 
with her people : he was there." 

Miss MacNaughtan's eyes looked troubled. 

Nancy Thorpe had been at her school for four years. 
She belonged to one of the oldest of Norfolk families. 
As a race the Thorpes were arrogant and family-proud. 
The men were good-looking and selfish, the women lovely 
and reckless. Nancy Thorpe had worshipped at the 
shrine of Stella from the day she put her face, so like a 
wild rose, into Miss MacNaughtan's school until the 
day she was almost dragged from it, weeping her heart out. 
“ You needn't tell me he adores you, dear." 

She looked at the girl curiously. It was the first time 
she had ever remembered that her pupil's nature was 
not English. In the girl's words, I love to be adored," 
there was just a touch of the slave-like adoration of the 
women of the East who never expect to understand the 
lords who become their masters. 

The girl's face had become illuminated as from some 
lamp within her soul ... it was beautiful ... so beau- 
tiful that a lump came into her guardian's throat. “ Do 
you know what he said when I promised to marry him ? 
He said that he had certainly never been conceited before, 
but that now he would never be un-conceited again. . . . 
He worships me, Naughtie, in the silliest and foolishest way. 
Thinks I'm cleverer than any other girl, and lovelier and 
more wonderful; he never believes I can be in earnest 
about my love for him because, he says, he's such an 
ordinary sort of a duffer." 

“Is he ordinary ? . . . Try to think dispassionately : 
ordinary from your intellectual standpoint ? " 

The girl paused. “ He's frightfully good-looking, at least 
I think so — just as fair and pink as I'm dark and pale. 
And about his own job he knows far more than I do." 

Miss MacNaughtan laughed. “ Well, let us hope so. 
What is his own job ? " 

“ He's a soldier." 

“ And about the things you care for that are not his 
own job . . . have you much in common ? " 

The girl's eyes dropped. “ I don't know," she said, 


20 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


with a sincerity that amazed even the woman who knew 
her so well. “ I really don't know, for we were in love 
with each other too soon to find out, and when we're to- 
gether, that's just enough ! ... It was only when I was 
coming to you to-day that I kept wondering what I should 
tell you about him ; it made me ask myself what I did 
’know about him except the fact that I love him." The 
girl's voice broke. ‘‘ And you led me to think that . . ." 
she paused, “ that ... a woman loved a man and wished 
to give herseK to him because he responded to all the 
intellectual interests in her nature as well as the other 
feelings, because he awakened new qualities in her, because 
she admired him — oh ! I don't know how to express all 
you taught me to expect, and now it isn't like that . . . 
not a bit like that." 

“ What is it like ? " 

‘‘ It's like something you don't understand, something 
that has no reason in it : you just love because you can't 
help yourself ... it takes possession of you." 

Miss MacNaughtan turned the curious plain gold ring 
round and round on the girl's long finger. No woman is 
ever old enough to have forgotten her own feelings when 
love's first passion possessed her. She was moved by 
the girl's appeal to emotions she had hoped were extinct 
in her own being. Her fascinating voice, which had what 
Stella had termed the “ Terry quality " in it, faltered a 
little as she said : “I think it's the real thing, dearie. 
Don't trouble your head about what an old maid said, 
I can teach my bairns lots of things, but no one, much less 
an old maid like myself, can teach them what only God 
knows — which halves fit into which." 

The girl's eyes were full of gratitude. ‘‘ I think he was 
meant for me, Naughtie, for we doved each other right 
away, and I feel quite unworthy of him, and he feels him- 
self horribly unworthy of me, so it sounds all right. I 
ought to be grateful to you for having made me what I 
am . . . the kind of ‘ me,' at any rate, that he approves 
of . . . the kind of me that he thinks so wonderful." 

‘‘ Dear child, I had splendid ground to cultivate ; any- 
thing I planted grew in it ... I can take very little 
credit to myself. . . . But I should like to see your 

man. 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


21 


So you will. May I bring him here on Sunday night ? 
Are you still at home to ‘ intimates only/ on Sundays ? 

‘‘ Yes, dear, bring him. When are you to be married ? "" 

'' Oh ! the girl cried. “ I don't know . . . give me 
breathing time . . . I've so much to do and think about. 
I'm going to Cairo next week — I want to know something 
about my home before he comes out : his regiment's going 
there next winter ... it will be about nine months until 
we meet. I want to be just a girl in my home for all that 
time, he wants me to marry him immediately, before 
we leave London." 

‘‘ Has he met your mother ? Does he know your 
people ? " Miss MacNaughtan tried to hide the anxious 
note in her voice. 

‘‘ Oh, yes, he adores mother; often I feel quite jealous 
of her . . . she looks so young and pretty, all men admire 
her ; she often finds things out about Vernon that I don't 
know." 

Miss MacNaughtan pulled the girl's ear. “ You haven't 
time ! " 

A happy laugh set the girl's mouth into beautiful 
curves, and the memory of what Miss MacNaughtan's 
words conveyed stirred in her being a beautiful flame of 
passion. 

At that moment the door opened and Clarkson appeared. 

“ Well, Clarkson ? " 

Please, m'm, have you forgotten there is a committee 
meeting at 6.30 ? " 

'' Oh, Clarkson ! " Miss MacNaughtan gave one of her 
youthful laughs. Have they been waiting long ? " 

‘‘ Only five minutes, m'm, but I thought I'd better tell 
you." 

“ Tell them I'll be down in two minutes." 

She crossed the room hurriedly and, opening the drawer 
of a Queen Anne bureau, took out a small note-book. 

Thursday . . . Thursday . . . Thursday the 18th, yes, 
here it is — committee meeting 6.30. Dumb Friends' 
League. Good-bye, dear. Sunday night — mind you bring 
him ... let yourself out, won't you ? . . . my notes 
are downstairs." 

As Miss MacNaughtan disappeared the girl laughed to 
herself. Just the same as ever," she said, ‘‘ the darling ! 


22 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYFT 


Always doing ten times more than any other woman, and 
always with spare time to see her tiresome, adoring pupils, 
who ‘ use her up/ She flung herself down on the sofa 
they had sat upon together, and put her hands up before 
her face. 

“ The dear, dear old place ! "" she said, and “ dear, dear 
Naughtie ! . . . I wonder if any one will ever take her 
place in my life, if any one will ever give me the happiness 
she has For a moment she tried to think of herself 

as back in her old life in the school, as back in the peace 
of the old days, the peace of a life which, with all its gaieties 
and interests, had held none of the new passion which had 
awakened in her. But it was useless to think of her life 
now as apart from the new force which was moving it, the 
force which left her disinclined for intellectual pursuits. 

In a few moments Clarkson opened the drawing-room 
door again. When he saw the girl's attitude he withdrew. 

Stella called after him, “ Clarkie, come back ! I'm not 
unhappy, I'm only frightened because I am so happy. 
Clartaon, I'm going to be married." 

“ No, miss ! " 

“ Yes, Clarkson ; why not ? " 

“ H'excuse me, miss, I forgot ; you see it was h'only 
yesterday that you was a baby, miss." 

The girl laughed. . . . “ How's your wife, Clarkson ? " 

“ That's what I came about, please, miss ; you see she 
can't walk, and she'll not be contented with all that I 
can tell her — she'll want to know h'e very thing." 

“ About what, Clarkson ? " 

“ About you, miss — h'every single thing. . . ." He paused. 

“ Do you want me to go and see her ? " 

“ Oh ! no, miss, I wasn't thinking of h'asking h'any 
such thing. ..." He twisted his hands nervously : standing 
before the beautiful woman in her rich sables and perfectly 
chosen gown, he had for the moment forgotten how 
many times he had carried her up the long stairs to bed, 
kicking and screaming because the French honne had 
insisted upon her going to bed before Miss MacNaughtan 
returned to say good night to her. 

“ Of course I'U go, Clarkie. . . . Does she live in the 
same place . . . ? " 

“ Yes, miss, number h'eight, 'arrington Mews, but I 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


23 


couldn't have you go round there alone, miss : I had only 
come h'up to h'ask you please, miss, if you had such a 
thing as a picture of yourself you could let me show my 
missus. I'd take h'every care of it, miss." 

“ Why, Clarkie, I'll go round to see her, and I'll take her 
my photograph for herseM. Tell her I'U come on Sunday 
afternoon, and I'll bring the gentleman I'm going to 
marry." 

‘‘ Ho, miss " — something very like tears rolled down the 
old man's face — “you are not h'altered, miss, not one 
h'atom. Thank you, miss ; I'll tell her that, miss ; shall I 
call a taxi, miss ? " 

Stella was putting on her gloves. “ Look, Clarkson, 
there's my ring." 

The old man stepped politely forward to look at the 
odd-looking ring : it was one made after Stella's o^vn fancy. 
“Very nice, miss, h'I'm sure, but you h'always had beautiful 
rings." 

“ Yes, Clarkson, but this one is a special ring, and so 
to me it is specially beautiful. I suppose my young man 
is Just a fine young man like so many other fine young 
men ... to me he is quite different." 

“ That's right, miss, that's 'ow I knew it would be 
some day, though it does seem strange to a man as 'ow 
as beautiful a young lady as you, miss, and as clever a 
young lady, should ever come to look upon an h'ordinary 
young chap like that." 

The girl laughed delightedly, a laugh which lit her face 
to the highest beauty. “ That's your veneration for our 
sex, Claris on. Vernon's so good-looking that lots of women 
will wonder how it was that he ever came to look upon an 
ordinary girl like myself." 

“ Ho no, miss ! " His voice was full of reproach and con- 
tradiction of her words : the girl had no right to say it 
of herself — she had been Miss MacXaughtan's most admired 
pupil, she was now a creature of such refined and unusual 
beauty, that she had no right to speak of herself as an 
“ h'ordinary " girl. 


CHAPTER III 


It was two days later when Clarkson showed Stella and 
her lover into Miss MacNaughtan's drawing-room. As 
he closed the door behind them and walked slowly down 
the wide stair- way, he said to himself : “ Good-looking 
young chap enough, but Gawd, "ow h'ordinary ! 

And that was just what Miss MacNaughtan thought of 
him. 

‘‘ Physically delightful, one of England's finest specimens, 
but mentally — Gawd, 'ow h'ordinary ! " 

Yet when her pupil followed her into her little ante- 
room on some feeble pretext to ask her: ‘‘Naughtie, 
what do you think of him ? " she answered, ‘‘ Delightful, 
quite a prince charming," and he certainly was both of 
these two things, with his fair colouring and frank English 
eyes and faultless figure. She could well say he was 
charming, for he had the distinction of the Thorpe breeding, 
and she had no reason for thinking him stupid, for as 
she touched upon scores of subjects he made keen and 
apt observations. Yet in her heart she had labelled him, 
as Clarkson had, “ h'ordinary " and totally void of 
imagination. 

But after all, she asked herself when the girl had left 
her, happy in the belief that she thoroughly approved 
of her choice, might it not be that she had expected 
that her favourite pupil would select some being such 
as never existed, some impossible creature with the 
mentality of a genius and the manners and physique of 
a man of the world and sportsman, some creature whose 
good looks were less conventional and more interesting 
than Vernon Thorpe's. She had tested him under the 
too powerful lens of her devotion. 

During the interview Egypt, and more especially Cairo, 
had become the topic of conversation. The girl had 

24 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


25 


laughingly told her lover that Miss MacNaughtan did not 
care for Cairo. ‘‘ She thinks the English in Cairo either 
bores or snobs."" 

‘‘ In what way ? "" Vernon asked. He turned to Miss 
MacNaughtan ... he hoped she didn"t think they ought 
to hob-nob with the natives . . . (he hadn"t the slightest 
idea of what he really meant by the word natives, whether 
Mohammedans, Copts, Greeks, or Persians ; he was totally 
ignorant of the wonderfully heterogeneous mixture of races 
which make up the human scum of Cairo). By heredity 
he had the strongest feelings (which had as yet been un- 
touched) as to who were fit for Englishmen to associate 
with in foreign countries. 

He had failed to remember, after his first introduction 
to Stella, that she was Syrian by birth. He admired 
her mother, who was Irish. He had forgotten the fact 
that her father was a Syrian so completely that Miss 
MacNaughtan"s words did not suggest anything that was 
uncomfortable. Stella had certainly nothing in the world 
to do with his preconceived idea of “ natives."" Natives 
were, to his very Saxon mind, beings absolutely beneath 
him — to say he didn"t think so would have been to tell 
a lie — while Stella, he had the grace to feel, was far above 
him ! He thought of her with pride, he thought of her 
with self-satisfaction. It gave him a new belief in himself 
— the knowledge that she loved him. 

For Vernon was not in the least conceited, and in his 
own country he was certainly not a snob. He was one 
of the unimaginative Englishmen whose good looks are 
accentuated by Saxon colouring and an almost Hellenic 
devotion to physical training. . . . Clever women in all 
countries become slaves to the Anglo-Saxon brutes. And 
Vernon was no brute. What he had really thought out 
for himself and believed, and what was merely the result 
of caste, it is hard to say. Like most Englishmen he 
expressed himself as seldom and as badly as possible on 
any subject that mattered — if it was not his own hobby. 
His mind had never wandered into abstract paths, or 
disturbed its fine calm by useless theorizing. But he had 
the desired characteristics of an Englishman, which should 
never be changed — ^grit enough to endure hardships with- 
out grousing, courage enough to know fear and face it, 


26 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


for there is no courage in being fearless. To be fearless is 
to be lacking in one of the senses which protects us from 
danger. And Vernon's senses were acutely alive, although 
they were limited. He had not the highly-developed 
sensibilities of the Latin races, or even of the less typically 
Saxon of his brother Englishmen, but his sense for 
‘‘ honour " and for all that comes within an English- 
man's understanding of that virtue, was very much alive. 

He had been taught, as all English boys are taught, 
that the telling of a lie is a crime ; he had not been taught 
its equivalent in the Latin mind — the sin of hurting an- 
other's feelings. 

And so he belonged to the countless class of Englishmen 
who show all human beings who are not of the Western 
world that he scorns them, and who would rather make 
his friends uncomfortable than tell a lie. 

But to return to Miss MacNaughtan's answer — it was 
equivocating and unprovocative of further comment. 

She accused herself of being rash in her judgment, of 
having summed up the English “as a class " from the 
behaviour of one or two unfortunate specimens whom she 
had met with in her hotel. 

She was glad to change the subject, for her wide experi- 
ence of human character told her that this typical Anglo- 
Saxon, who had fallen in love with her highly -gifted pupil, 
was as full of inherited prejudices as an Oriental is full of 
superstitions. 

“ He ought to marry a fair English woman who would 
keep alive his pink complexion and race, and not one who 
would taint it with the passion and pain of the pale children 
of the East, whose forefathers knew and followed ‘ the 
man of sorrows who was acquainted with grief.' " 


CHAPTER IV 


Stella had been in Egypt for almost a year ; in another 
week her lover would arrive. 

She was sitting in the garden of her beautiful home, 
thinking over all that had happened since her arrival in 
Cairo, thinking of all the scales that had fallen from her 
eyes ! 

She felt a hundred years older and a thousand times 
less in love with humanity generally. The time had 
passed very quickly, because everything had been new 
to her, and her home-life was delightful. If there was 
nothing else to please her in Egypt, surely this garden 
with its exquisite pergolas and Eastern kiosks of old grey 
wood, and its mysterious devices for the introducing of 
water-courses and artificial lakes, its odorous orchards 
of rare fruits and scented shrubs, was sufficient. It was 
lovely and mysterious enough to gratify any Eastern 
princess. But in it Stella still felt herself strangely Western, 
things had not grown familiar to her with the familiarity 
of a native land. Things which she must have known 
and been accustomed to in her infancy now made her 
seem a stranger in a strange land. The very servants in 
her mother's house appeared to her impossible as servants, 
they were the adjuncts of an Eastern tableau. 

But it was not the strangeness of things which had 
produced the feeling of age and bitterness in her heart; 
it was not the mystery of Egypt, with its power of the 
Unseen and its terrorising sense of Age — ^it was something 
wholly modern and unexpected. 

It was the finding of herself little better than a social 
outcast amongst the people who were the Power for Good 
in Egypt, amongst the people of a nation who had spoiled 
her and courted her and reared her in their bosom. As 
yet she had not mentioned a word of her feelings upon the 

27 


28 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


subject to her people. She loved them too much, and her 
devotion to England forbade it. 

“ There must be some reason,'" she had often said, 
“ there must be something more than I know ! " 

And there was a great deal more than she knew, only 
she had imagined that the fault lay with her own family, 
that there was some hidden skeleton which every one knew 
but herself. 

Her brother was the only person she could speak to 
upon the subject, but there was something about his 
personality and expression which told her that he had 
lived his suffering down, that he had made a world for 
himself above the petty snobbery of race prejudice. And 
he did not wish to re-open the old wound. He was so 
lovable and sensitive for her in all that happened that 
she could not bring herself to touch upon a subject that 
must necessarily give him pain. 

She was sitting in the coolest spot in the garden, for the 
November sun was warmer than any sun she had known 
in Europe, in her white frock she looked a delightful 
picture of luxurious girlhood. To-day there was a subject 
she had to think out and settle quite definitely. 

Salome " was to be performed at the Opera that evening. 
It was the opening night of the season ; she longed to go. 
So far she had only been at one or two social functions in 
Cairo — they did not bear thinking about ! . . . Would the 
opera be a repetition ? 

Another subject which had to be considered was Vernon ! 
he would be in Cairo in a week, did he know ? Did 
he understand ? Would he have courage ? The “ some- 
thing " in her heart which made her fear, instead of rejoice, 
at the nearness of his coming made her hunger all the 
more for an instant proof of his devotion, for an instant 
proof of his A’^regard for the prejudices of his race. 

She did not allow herself to frame any definite fear in 
connection with his arrival. His letters were everything 
that her ‘‘ all or nothing " nature, as ‘‘ Naughtie " had de- 
fined it, could desire ; they surely ought to have drowned 
the whispering voice of fear. Yet the whispering voice 
told her that as Hadassah Lekejian in Cairo she was a 
very different person from the Stella he had known. She 
had been christened Esther, but her father liked to call 


A WIPE OUT OP EGYPT 


29 


her Hadassah, the old Persian rendering of the Biblical 
Esther. In England she had been known as Stella Adair. 
Would he feel as proud to say “ Hadassah is mine ! Hadas- 
sah is mine ! ” as he had been to repeat to himseh “ Stella 
is mine ! Stella is mine ? ” Then she remembered how 
something unkno^vn in her had said, “ I am not yours 
yet ! I wonder which of us will have changed the most 
when we meet.” 

Nicolas, her brother, was coming towards her ; his good 
looks thrilled her with pride ; he was a delightful person 
to own for a brother. She had seen so little of him during 
her years at school that she was quite unprepared, on her 
arrival in Cairo, for the pleasure his personality afforded 
her. Since she had left Miss MacNaughtan’s school, in 
her travels round the world, or during her visits to her 
many friends, she had met no one who was her brother’s 
equal for intellectual refinement or good looks. With all 
the warmth of her ungrudging nature she already adored 
him. He was equally proud of his sister. 

Nicolas sat himself down beside her, and as he did so 
he laid a small roll of music (in manuscript) and a spray 
of tuberose on her lap. She lifted the white flower to 
her nostrils, and softly and sensuously drew in its luscious 
fragrance. 

“ Is it finished ? ” she said : her eyes fell on the MS. 

“ Not quite, but I’ve got it . . . it’s there ” — he touched 
the roll with his sensitive fingers — “ it’s there ; I can’t 
lose it now. I’ve only to elaborate on the theme.” 

“ How splendid ! ” she said. “ Shall I play it for you ? ” 

“ Not yet, it’s too rough.” He sighed heavily. 

“ You’re tired,” she said ; “ have a rest.” 

“ A little,” he answered, “ but I’m going for a ride ; 
now that’s off my mind I feel free.” 

He rose to go. She knew the words he had come to 
say were still unspoken. With his back turned to her he 
said : “ What about to-night, Stella ? ” 

“ Are we going ? ” she said. 

“ Do you want to ? ” 

“ I want to hear ‘ Salome.’ ” 

He suddenly swung round. “ Go,” he said ; “ for the 
little mother’s sake go, and you will soon grow to feel as 
I do.” 


30 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


“ Oh, Nicolas ! 

“ I lived in Germany and France for seven years ; I 
understand. I was so well off that I was a little king there. 
I forgot all about Cairo.^^ 

She caught his hand. “You are a king anywhere, 
dear.'" She stood up beside him ... he put his arm tenderly 
round her waist, and looked at her with almost a lover's 
devotion. “ We're rather a nice-looking couple,'^ she said 
laughingly . . . her voice faltered . . . “ yet we might be 
lepers." 

“ Hush ! " he said. “ Don't. She's borne it all her life 
without one word." 

“ How she must have loved him ! " 

“ He's been worth it . . . ! " the words were spoken with 
asperity. 

Stella dropped her eyes. She had not learnt yet the 
true worth of her father's nature — ^his incorruptibleness 
in a corrupt land ; his sense of justice, which had never 
been blinded by the injustices perpetrated against him ; 
and, best of all, his sincerity as a Christian. Nicolas under- 
stood all these things, and often wondered in his heart at 
his father's gentleness of speech and at his generosity of 
purpose. He had allowed no bitterness to corrupt his 
sense of right and wrong. Personal slights he could not 
pay back by meannesses, it was not in his nature. 

“ Here comes mother," he said. He looked at the girl 
with eyes which asked for thoughtfulness for the creature 
he adored. 

Stella rose to meet her mother, her brother sauntered 
off with his music in his hand. In the distance there was 
the tum-tumming of the Nile-man's drum and the clearer 
note of the bottle-and-key. Overhead, in the unbroken blue 
of the November sky, birds like falcons were swirling and 
turning in the sunlight. Mother and daughter met under the 
ancient wood-work of the long pergola, which had turned to 
the colour of grey sandstone under the fierce sun of Egypt. 

“ I came to ask you, dear, if you would like to go to 
‘ Salome ' to-night . . . your father will 'phone for seats. 
Girgis is coming to dinner — he could go with us." 

There was silence for a moment . . . the girl was thinking. 
She had never met Girgis Boutros, her full cousin, a wealthy 
young Syrian cotton-farmer of the Fayyum. He had been 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 31 

visiting some freshly-acquired property in Upper Egypt, so 
she had not made his acquaintance. 

‘‘ Of course, dearest, I'd like to go." The girl spoke 
hurriedly and with emphasis. Her mother might have 
thought that her delay in answering was due to her desire 
to refuse. “ I was just wondering how I shall like Girgis, 
what I shall think of my rich cousin." 

“ He is remarkably handsome." 

“ Is he at all like Nicolas ? " 

“ Oh, no ! " 

The girl looked at her mother. We are first cousins ? " 

“ Girgis takes after his father's people." 

‘‘ Is he like father at all ? " 

Stella's father was in no way an ordinary Syrian ; he 
was of average height and build, with almost a patriarchal 
type of feature. His eyes and the shape of his fine head 
gave him his personality and stamped him as a man of 
individuality and influence. 

“ No; in looks he is not the least like your father . . . . 
yet ... he has his ability." 

“ What is he like ? " the girl asked. In her mind she 
was wondering how he would look at the opera, how he 
would be dressed, and how he would behave. 

“ He's like one of the beautiful portraits cut in relief 
on the limestone walls at Abydos." 

“ They are portraits of Egyptians ; he's a Syrian." 

“ Only on his mother's side ; you forget, his father was 
a Copt, one of the purest of all the Egyptian types." 

“ Oh ! " Stella said, but her acclamation was expressive 
of much which her mother understood. 

“ Is he very Eastern ? " 

“ Yes, very ... of the finest type." 

“ You see, mum dear, I know so little about my own 
people. I've been almost a year in Egypt and I have 
only met a few." 

“ Scarcely any, dear." She took her daughter's slender 
hand in hers and caressed it. “ Sometimes I wonder if I 
have acted unwisely, Stella." 

For a moment the girl thought her mother referred to 
her own marriage with her father, but it was only for a 
moment ; the next she realized that she was alluding to 
her own education in Europe, to the wisdom of having 


32 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


cut her off from her father's people. Stella knew that 
her mother had cut herself off from her own people when 
she married Nicolas Lekejian, but she had thought, until 
her own arrival in Cairo, that it was on account of her 
mother's refusal to marry a cousin who was heir to the 
entailed property which she as a girl could not inherit. 
The cousin was stupid enough to be considered by many 
wanting in intellect. As Helen Adair, she had abhorred 
him, as she had learnt to abhor her people for wishing 
to marry her to him, and for ignoring the husband 
whom she loved. And so their name was never mentioned 
by her, although her daughter had used her mother's 
maiden name during her upbringing in England, because 
it was more easily pronounced and saved trouble. 

“ I'll soon get to know and love them all," the girl said, 
“ though I must admit that I still feel a stranger in a 
strange land . . . but the land is so wonderful that it 
doesn't matter.'^ 

The eyes of Irish blue, which were still as bright as 
Stella's dark ones, smiled eloquently. “ Girgis is a splendid 
fellow," she said. “ We'll go and visit his home in the 
Fayyum one day quite soon. I'd like you to see how 
modern he is in his ideas, and how devoted he is to his 
work. I've a great admiration for Girgis." 

“ I'd love to go : the Fayyum is one of the most beau- 
tiful of the ancient oases, isn't it ? And Crocodilopolis lies 
close to it ? " 

“ Yes, and Lake Moeris." 

‘‘ Oh," Stella said, “ what a lot there is to see ! . . . 
How thankful we ought to be that we're not tourists who 
have to ‘ do it ' all in a certain length of time." 

The words built up a silence between them again, for 
the word ‘‘ tourist " brought to the girl's mind the memory 
of all the visitors to Egypt she had seen and met at the 
two social functions to which she had so eagerly gone 
the winter before on her arrival in Egypt — ^the functions 
at which she had been left standing by her mother's side 
as though she was not fit to be introduced to the moneyed 
Americans and brainless English women who fiy to Egypt 
every winter merely to enjoy the balls and gaieties which 
are given by hotel-keepers. The invitations to these 
balls are sent by the hotel managers to the visitors who 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


33 


can afford to stay at the most expensive hotels. AU the 
hotels in Cairo give one ball a week during the season. 
Visitors residing in any of the first-class hotels receive 
cards of invitation, unless there is some reason why they 
should not do so. Stella's mother's mind was working 
in the same direction. She was recalling the look of wonder 
and indignation in her daughter's eyes when the truth 
of the situation had slowly da^vned upon her — that 
they were not in society " in Cairo, that the right 
people " did not know them — that she, Stella Adair, the 
spoilt darling of Miss MacNaughtan's school, that she, 
Hadassah Lekejian, as her father loved to call her, was 
not received by the relatives of the very girls to whom 
she had been the adored Head " at school. In Cairo 
the same families who had thought it an honour to enter- 
tain her as their daughters' schoolfellow would shrink 
from her in her own home. 

The mother recalled their drive together after the 
reception through the crowded streets of Cairo, ringing 
with Oriental yells and swarming with Oriental loungers, 
and across the Nile bridge with its awful multitudes of 
Eastern races of widely different types, and on to the 
quieter banks of the river, where the tall masts of the 
native boats looked like thickets of slender trees against 
the burning glory of the setting sun. She recalled the 
silence of the girl and how her star-like eyes had looked 
neither to the right nor to the left as they drove through 
the yelling crowds, but had stared, as though transfixed, 
into the wild flames which branched through the heavens 
from the sinking sun. 

Not one word had been spoken by mother or daughter 
during that drive, not one word had been said since in 
reference to that afternoon. But it was the last social 
function Stella had consented to attend. 

And now Mrs. Lekejian was going to take her to 
the opera, she was going to crucify her again. But 
surely it had to be done : the girl must know everything 
before her lover arrived. 

Stella saw her father coming towards them. She never 
got accustomed to his habitual wearing of the scarlet 
tarbush which every one employed in the Khedivial ser- 
vice in Egypt is compelled to wear ; but Nicolas Lekejian 
3 


34 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


wore his at all times and in all places, as Syrians and Egyp- 
tians always do. Only Eastern eyes could have borne 
unflinchingly the powerful Egyptian sun, and a tarbush 
affords no more shade than an inverted flower-pot. 
Nicolas, his son, always wore a European hat. As he 
approached his wife and daughter he said, ‘‘ I can't wait, 
dear, I must know about the opera, to 'phone. Am I to 
order seats ? " 

Oh, yes ! " — it was Stella who answered — ‘‘ we want to 
go so much." 

That's all I wanted to know," he said. ‘‘ I've no time 
for talk." He unwound his daughter's fingers from his 
left wrist. They were speaking Arabic : it was their 
custom to do so when Nicolas the elder was present — Stella 
said it was the effect of the tarbush. 

“ Let go, temptress," he said, “ and allow your father 
to get back to his work." 

His eyes were bright with the pride he felt . . . like 
the Esther of old she must surely obtain favour in the 
sight of all the world." 

‘‘ But I want you to stay : do stay and tell me about 
things ; almost everything I see needs explaining . . . 
even yet." 

Her father was pleased that she should desire his com- 
pany, but remained firm. I must go, Hadassah ; there 
are a thousand and one things which have to be done 
before lunch." 

She lifted her retaining fingers from his wrist. ‘‘ Then 
may I go and wander about alone ? " she said . . . can 
I go later on to the Market of the Afternoon ? " 

Take Yehla." 

The girl frowned. Can't I go alone, father ? Can't I 
be free ? ... It isn't like the bazaars : the market's 
quite open, it's right under the Citadel." 

Yehla won't interfere ? " 

'' He chatters . . . he's there ... I am guarded . . . 
Oh, dad ! " — she broke into English — you must let me 
go out alone. I've always done it . . . even at school." 

“ You can't in this country." 

“ Why not ? " 

“ Mohammedans don't understand any freedom for 
women." 


A WIPE OUT OF EGYPT 


35 


“ They must be taught/" 

“ Not by my daughter/" 

“ Is it only the Mohammedans ? "" Her eyes searched his 
for the truth. ‘‘ Are the Christians clean-mouthed, clean- 
minded ? "" 

He remembered that she could understand almost all 
the languages spoken in Cairo except Greek and Persian. 
She had already had her young ears polluted with the 
remarks she had heard about her personal appearance 
in passing the street cafes and through the bazaars. 

No, unfortunately not."" 

‘‘ Are all Orientals the same ? "" 

‘‘ Generally speaking, yes."" He saw that her face had 
changed, her soft smiles had turned to bitterness. She 
remained silent. 

‘‘ I"m sorry, Hadassah, that you miss your freedom, 
but I couldn"t allow it . . . you will understand better later 
on ; take Yehla with you when your mother can"t go."" 

‘‘ Yes,"" she said, “ I will take Yehla, and I shall under- 
stand later on ... I am learning very quickly."" 

At the end of the grey pergola she left her parents 
abruptly. Her mother returned to the house with her 
father. When they were out of sight, in a sudden fit of 
remorse for the coldness in her voice and bearing, Stella 
flung herself down on a garden seat of arabesqued white 
marble, and put her hands up before her e3^es. 

She had to shut out the glory of the East from her 
sight, the profusion of flowers in the garden, the soaring 
minarets in the distance where the city lay bathed in light, 
the turquoise-blue of the fellahin"s Jebbas, the whiteness 
of their turbaned heads ; she put her thumbs on her ears 
and deadened the sound of the ancient call to prayer 
which was floating over the land like a message from heaven. 
The cadence of the cry was so divine that the spirit of 
holiness seemed to rest in the air. As the praying figures 
rose from their knees and the Mohamm^ans resumed 
their toil of drawing water from the sighing sakiyas or 
hoeing the flooded land for the crops, Stella said : 

Is it all sham ? Is this spirit of holiness quite hollow ? 
Is the East really polluted ? Is that why the English reject 
us ? "" She thought of Italy, of Spain, of the Latin 
countries generally, where almost the same restrictions 


36 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


for women prevail. Even in these countries she had 
found it difficult to walk about alone, yet they were 
different ! There was something in the East which was 
grosser, something which was i^rz^elevated by romance, 
and that the grossness was not restricted to the Moslems, 
who have retained the ancient opinion of the chief object 
of women — for Mohammed left untouched the Eastern 
degradation of women in his elevation of the one God ! 
— hurt her unspeakably. 

And into her mind there came the deeper bitterness, 
the knowledge which had come to her during these nine 
strange months, that if she had been the daughter of a 
Moslem, if her father had been a follower of Mohammed's 
teachings instead of Christ's, he would have been more 
respected. She had quickly learnt that the Christian - 
English in Egypt despise the Eastern-Christians, and 
whether they had not a right to despise them was a ques- 
tion she was afraid to ask herself. In her own home 
her father would have none but Christian servants, 
Copts and Syrians and Italians, although it was acknow- 
ledged that her father in his business, and her mother 
in her domestic rule, suffered severely from the fact. ‘‘ If 
we do not employ Christian servants," Nicolas Lekejian 
had often said to his wife, who will ? And until they are 
employed as universally as the Mohammedans, and have 
been trusted for as many generations as they have been 
doubted, they will continue to live up to the bad name 
they have been given. They have been treated like 
criminals for centuries, they have been despised and 
rejected of men ; what can you expect ? " He likened 
their insensibility to honour in business matters, and 
their servile acceptance of their inferiority, to those of the 
merchants of Japan, who have scarcely yet got their eyes 
open to the fact that a man can be both an honourable 
citizen and a tradesman. Until the era of English rule in 
Egypt, Christians were compelled to wear a distinguishing 
mark, like the Japanese tradesmen of old, a mark which 
set them apart from other people, and precluded them 
from enjoying the privileges of ordinary citizens or engaging 
in the commerce open to the Moslems. They suffered 
humiliation and degradation, which eventually corrupted 
their natures and killed the true spirit of the religion to 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


37 


which they have so tenaciously clung for nineteen centuries. 
The beauty of the faith they have clung to, the faith for 
which they have suffered inglorious martyrdoms, is 
wholly unknown to the generality of them. The spiritual 
meaning of its doctrines has not survived the centuries 
of bitter wrongs which have been nursed in their bosoms. 
How could it ? Yet an absolute faith in the sacraments 
of the early Christian Church in the East has survived 
because they have been taught and performed with the 
fanatical zeal which always attends religious persecutions. 

Stella knew that, in the true sense of the word, the Copts 
in Egypt are not Christians, that they know scarcely 
anything about Christ or His teachings ; but she knew 
that they had clung with a blind adherence to the dogmas 
of the Church which had been developed out of Christ's 
teachings by His disciples in the first centuries after 
His death. She knew that, speaking broadly, Coptic 
customs and Coptic ideas, apart from religious matters, 
are identical with those of the Mohammedans ; that 
Copts as individuals are almost indistinguishable from 
Moslems. It seemed pitiable that it was owing to their 
religious zeal that their moral characters had deteriorated. 
She realized that it was not, of course, because they were 
Christians that they were less honourable in their natures 
and more cringing in their attitude ; it was because of the 
suffering and oppression they had endured for the sake of 
Christianity, a depraved Christianity, which taught them 
less about Christ than Mohammed had taught his followers 
of Christ. To a Moslem Christ is a seventh Prophet. 

It seemed a sad mockery, a bitter sarcasm, that these 
very people, who had since the days of St. Mark kept 
alive the Church of Christ in the East, were to-day en- 
tirely devoid of the true spirit of Christ's teachings. Christ 
taught humility, not servility — servility is the child of 
oppression — and Christ w'as a Socialist. 

It had been gall and wormwood to Stella's soul to 
discover that her father's people belonged to a servile 
race, a mixed race, a Semitic race, a race which had 
known oppressive rulers ever since the Biblical days of 
Assyrian and Babylonian invasions. 

Precisely speaking, she realized that she had no race and 
no country, for the history of Syria leaves not so much 


38 


A WIPE OUT OP EGYPT 


pure blood in its people as the history of Egypt, where 
the Copts at least are almost the undiluted descendants 
of the ancient Egyptians. Up till now she had looked 
upon Egypt as her country, for her people had lived there 
for many generations, and in ancient history Syria was 
dependent upon Egypt for a very long period. 

The manner in which the English rulers of the land looked 
upon the Syrians came as a shock to her. They were aliens 
and undesirable invaders ; they were called Levantines ! 

Her thoughts quickly travelled over the ancient history 
of her own land to the time when the Greeks of Antioch 
had introduced into it their art and culture, for the Sj^^rians, 
like the Japanese, were for ever receiving and imbibing 
the gifts and qualities of other nations. With their usual 
adaptability they imbibed the higher beauty of Greek art, 
which in its turn was reinforced by Roman influence, until 
Christian Syria was at one time the seat of advanced culture. 

‘‘ In those days,'' Stella said to herself, “ Vernon's people 
were mere undiscovered barbarians. In the days when 
Damascus and Antioch, the leading cities of the East, were 
famous as the trading centres of the whole world, the 
Romans were thrusting their yoke upon the half -savage 
Britons." Yet these very people amongst whom she had 
been reared, and whom she had learnt to love, were opening 
her eyes to the fact that the ancient races of the world — 
the races who had given it its first civilization and culture 
— were unclean. 

She knew that in her own nature there w^as, mixed up 
with the Eastern blood of her father, the Celtic blood of 
her mother. The independence of the Irish race was 
very strong in her; its revolutionary spirit had more 
dominating qualities than the servile nature of her oft- 
conquered forefathers. 

To-night she would meet her cousin Girgis Boutros for 
the first time ; to-night she w^ould realize how wholly apart 
from the British she was in Cairo, how closely linked to the 
native life of Egypt — for Girgis Boutros was entirely uninflu- 
enced by Western thought. Apart from his knowledge of 
the English language, which he had learnt for commercial 
purposes at the Coptic school in the Fayyum, and his fault- 
lessly cut clothes, he was free from the affectations of the 
wealthy Copts, who would gladly be mistaken for English. 


CHAPTER V 


Stella was waiting in the drawing-room of her mother's 
house for the arrival of her cousin Girgis Boutros. Her 
brother was with her. She was playing over the very 
difficult composition which he had shown her in the garden 
that same morning ; he was standing behind her, looking 
over her shoulder. 

‘‘ It's awfully difficult ; you must have patience." 

‘‘ I know it is, and you make me realize it ; for if difficult 
to you, I'm afraid it's hopeless for ordinary people." 

She had turned round to speak to him, and had seen his 
look, expressive of admiration. “ Play it over to me," she 
said, just anyhow, so as to give me the ‘ feeling ' of it." 

Nicolas sat down on the piano-stool which she had 
vacated. 

He played over his composition with exquisite expres- 
sion and charm, but with little execution. 

‘‘ It's delightful," Stella said — perfectly delightful. 
What a pity you're so nervous, for no one will ever do it so 
much justice in expression ! It's full of the East. How 
did you get it ? " 

“ I can play to you," he said, ‘‘ and to people I'm in 
sympathy with ; but I'm no pianist, I'm no musician : when 
I sit down in front of business men or critics I can't play 
a note. I have to endure hearing my compositions being 
murdered by people I pay to play them, when publishers 
ask to hear them, because I know that I couldn't play a 
note if I made them get up." 

‘‘ Now that you've me," she said affectionately, we 
must try ; let me play it again." 

Before she sat down he took her two hands in his and 
made her face him. Let me look at you, Stella . . . that 
dress is charming ; you are charming to-night." 

‘‘ Do you like it ? " she said. ‘‘ I'm so glad — it's very 
simple." 


39 


40 


A WIPE OUT OF EGYPT 


Nicolas laughed. “ I know that kind of simplicity — it 
belongs to the Rue de la Paix. I mean it’s certainly not 
Levantine ! ” 

Her soft mouth hardened. “I hope so. Do I look 
Levantine ? ” 

‘‘ Don’t . . . .” He put his arm round her. “ You 
mustn’t get bitter, Stella — it isn’t worth it.” 

‘‘ What isn’t ? ” 

“ The opinion of the British ! ” 

“ Vernon is British.” 

Nicolas did not answer. 

“ You like them ? You admire them in spite of their 
treatment of us ? ” 

“ Not wholesale . . . not their prejudices,” 

“ What, then ? ” 

“ Their honour . . . their justice, their clean-minded- 
ness, their dislike of intrigue.” 

The door opened. 

Girgis Boutros was shown in. He was in exquisitely 
cut evening dress ; every detail was perfect ; he was 
“ turned out ” like a well-bred Englishman who can 
afford to dress extravagantly but dislikes show. His 
tarbush of bright scarlet set off the brilliance of his 
splendid eyes ; its straight line increased the statuesqueness 
of his strong and clearly moulded features ; its colour threw 
up the glitter of his perfect teeth and curly black hair, 
which he wore very short. It was dry, stubborn hair, 
which expressed an active temperament. 

Stella thought she had never seen any living creature 
quite so beautiful, or so nearly perfect in %ure and feature. 
His love of exercise was evident by the nut-brown of his 
complexion, and the alertness of his bearing was suggestive 
of virile manhood. Beside him Nicolas looked strangely 
French and delicate. 

Mrs. Lekejian had followed her nephew into the room. 
She was anxious to see the effect his appearance would 
have upon her daughter. 

The introduction took place in Arabic. 

Girgis said, ‘‘ How do you do ?” in stilted English to Stella. 

The girl laughed. “ Why do you speak to me in English ? 

“ Because,” he said, “ you are to me so very English, 
if you please.’* 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 41 

Stella thought to herself, ‘‘ And you are to me so very 
Eastern, so strangely Eastern, if you please/" 

In spite of the fact that he was dressed in European 
clothes as “ up to date "" as could be bought, he was like 
one of the portraits of Seti I. come to life again from 
the white walls of his temple at Abydos. 

“ Well,"" she said, ‘‘ if I find that I can speak Arabic 
better than you can speak English, I shall be generous, 
and let you practise your English when you speak to me/" 

‘‘ Thank you very much,"" he said deferentially, ‘‘ but I 
would like to speak in my own language, if you please."" 

‘‘ Why ? "" Stella said. 

“ Because it is more beautiful for expressing my feelings."" 

‘‘ You are perfectly right,"" she said. ‘‘ Even I feel the 
want in English of the hundred inflections we have in 
Arabic for one word. In Arabic you can express any 
degree of feeling you wish by the different use of the one 
word ; in English we have to qualify it with adjectives."" 

That is why,"" he said, I think you have no poetry 
in English ... no poetry, at least, that I have read,"" 
he added the last words apologetically. 

Nicolas chimed in. “ You"re quite right,"" he said, 
‘‘ it"s the same thing in music. I used to think the ancient 
Arab music was grotesque. I remember the first time I 
heard the famous Arab tenor I had just returned from 
Paris. I couldn"t hide my laughter . . . now I know 
that it was my own ignorance ; he"s wonderful ! "" 

‘‘ Oh ! "" Stella said impulsively, “ I do want to hear 
some good Arab singer. I want to go to the Arab theatre. 
May I ? "" 

‘‘ Certainly you will go "" — it was Girgis who spoke — 
“ if you please."" 

‘‘ And I want to have an Arab dinner."" 

‘‘ Certainly you must have it,"" he repeated the formula, 
“ if you please."" 

Girgis "s English only required a little practice to make 
him quite at home in it. It was almost impossible for 
him to realize that for speaking it contained no polite 
metaphors, no elaboration of honorifics. 

As they spoke it gave her pleasure to watch his eyes, 
which flashed like black agate, his dazzling teeth, the 
exquisite contour of his pillar-like throat. And yet, 


42 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


with all his Eastern glow of colour, she felt the strange 
immobility of his countenance, which was characteristic of 
his Oriental blood. 

In watching him she became absent-minded, for she was 
saying to herself, ‘‘ He is my full cousin, my father's sister's 
child, yet I feel that he should have a label stuck on him, 
and be standing on a pedestal in the Cairo Museum." 
Girgis was nevertheless very much a living thing, very 
much a piece of youthful manhood, a manhood of mys- 
terious passions and powers. Vernon, her lover, to whom 
her thoughts at once flew, belonged to the race of people 
who despised Orientals like Girgis. 

At dinner Girgis sat next to her, but he spoke very 
little. Silence suited his strong features and dignified 
bearing. 

Tow^ards the end of the meal, however, she was sur- 
prised by the unexpected intuition he showed ; for he 
suddenly came out of his stone-like reserve to say : “I 
prefer to remain silent than to distress you." 

“ But why should you distress me ? " Stella said, sur- 
prised at his remark. 

‘‘ By talking to you of less interesting things than your 
thoughts afford you." 

“ You are too modest ; all that you have told me is 
very interesting. I wish you would tell me more about 
your work." 

‘‘It is not so interesting as your thoughts. I see that 
your mind is saying very much, your eyes speak . . . 
everything yet is strange to you." 

“ You are perfectly right," she said, “ everything is 
very strange ; I think things go on getting stranger and 
stranger." 

“ I am one of the many strange things." Only his eyes 
smiled : his skin, which was tanned to an indescribable 
hue by desert suns, became a little warmer. “ But do 
not forget, if you please, that you are also strange." 

“ To you ? " 

“ Yes, to me. When I look at you I have to say to 
myself, She is my cousin, Hadassah Lekejian." 

“ I am called Stella in England." 

“ Stella ! " he said — “ it is pretty. What is Stella, if 
you please ? " 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 43 

Stella means a star; Esther means the planet Venus, 
1 think/^ 

“ That is beautiful,"" he said ; he looked at her as much 
as to say, “Everything about you is beautiful."" “In the 
East we study the stars . . . they guide us."" 

“ Have you ever heard of Swift ? "" Stella asked. 

“ Swift ? No."" He looked puzzled. “ Swift means very 
fast, does it not ? Please explain to me."" 

“ Yes, quite right . . . but Swift was the name of a 
great English writer who loved a girl called Esther Van- 
homrigh ; he called her Stella."" 

“ The man who wiU marry you will caU you Stella ? "" 

“ He does."" 

The strong face betrayed no sign of surprise, yet the 
girPs words were wholly unexpected. Girgis Boutros had 
not heard of his cousin "s engagement, and he was over 
head and ears in love with her at first sight, and pre- 
pared to ask his uncle"s permission to marry her as soon 
as dinner was over. 

“ You are affianced ? "" 

“ Yes — engaged, as we call it."" 

“ And you will be married soon ? "" 

“ No, not yet ; not for a year, perhaps more."" 

“ But how can he wait? He has seen you ? "" (The strict 
Copts do not see their affianced brides.) 

Stella smiled. “ Yes, he has seen me ; in England we 
do not many men whom we have never seen — engage- 
ments often last more than a year. Englishmen are 
taught patience : they can wait."" 

“ He is English ? "" He pronounced it Eenglesh, There 
was surprise in his voice, surprise expressive of annoyance. 

“ Yes, he is an English soldier."" 

“ And he loves you ? "" 

The girl laughed. “ I hope so : why do you ask ? "" 

“The English are strange,""hesaid, thenlapsed into silence. 

“I don"t find them so,"" she said. “Couldn"t you wait 
one year for some one whom you loved very much ? "" 

“ Could I wait ? "" he said quietly. “ Yes, I could wait 
seven years, like Jacob, but I would follow her, I would 
follow my star."" His eyes fiashed with quickly kindled 
passion, but his features remained immobile. 

“ Englishmen trust their women, they need not follow 


44 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 

them ; we prefer to know each other intimately before 
we marry."' 

“ They are not very wise/’ he 6aid. “ I see much un- 
happiness in the papers. I read the divorces. The 
English are brave, but not wise ; they learnt much civiliza- 
tion from the East, but not wisdom ; they have never 
learnt wisdom or philosophy ! ” 

Stella laughed again : there was something so old and 
full of wisdom about this strange youth at her side that 
she could not resist drawing him out. While they spoke 
she watched his manners at table . . . they were perfect, 
and his hands were so beautiful that it gave her pleasure 
to let him prepare her fruit for her. “ Why do you read 
the English divorces ? ” she said. 

“ I wish to practise my English,” he said, “ and they 
interest me very much. If you do not read something 
amusing, something which you wish to follow to the end, 
you do not read at all ; then you forget.” 

‘‘ And the divorces, are they more interesting than 
novels — you like them better ? ” 

‘‘ Novels ? ” he said, “ I do not know ; if you please, 
what are they ? ” 

‘‘ Romances, love stories I mean.” 

He laughed outright for the first time ; it was not 
the frank laugh of an Englishman, but the cynical amuse- 
ment of a philosopher. Love stories ! ” he said. ‘‘ They 
are only fairy tales written for children or for nuns ; 
the English (fo not believe in them themselves ; they are 
not for men. When I wish to learn something about 
home life in England I read the divorces.” 

‘‘ Oh, you are funny ! ” Stella said. “Divorces break up 
home life, they do not make it.” 

“ It seems strange to you . . . who have been brought 
up in England. . . . Out here we know what the English 
are ; we hear from the divorce courts what they are in 
their own country.” 

Stella’s back went up . . . “Yes,” she said, “you ought to 
know what they are, considering what they have done for us.” 
“ What they have done for us, if you please ? ” 

“ What they have done ? what have they not done for 
all Egypt, Christian and Moslem ? ” 

“ I do not wish to offend, if you please ... for you are 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 45 

affianced to an Englishman. 1 do not discuss the politics 
with women.'' 

He was a stone image once more. 

“ You have not offended," Stella said, but I hate 
ingratitude, and in England women discuss politics . . . they 
will soon become active politicians." 

But we will not discuss it, if you please ; you have only 
been a short time in this country." He spoke with an air 
of authority, with the air of a man who expected to be 
obeyed. 

‘‘ It would not matter how long I lived here," she said 
— her temper was rising — '' it could not alter facts. The 
English have given us everything. Have all the Christians 
as well as the Moslem fellahin forgotten the abuses they 
suffered, the injustices they endured, the unspeakable 
wrongs that were thrust upon them ? " 

She looked at him for an answer. 

He raised his eyes slowly ; his thick lashes brushed his 
cheeks in a way Stella had never seen eye-lashes do before ; 
in his glance there was scorn and hate. ‘‘ They gave to us 
every good thing," he said, but the best thing of all, 
that they will never give." 

“ What have they not given us ? We are not Egyptians, 
that we should wish to rule ; this is not our country." 

“ Love," he said ; they have not given us love." 

Stella was silent. 

He was still burning her with his eyes. ‘‘ I once went to 
the English church," he said. The priest spoke all of 
‘ love.' He said, ‘ God is Love . . .' he said, ‘ Love ye one 
another. . . .' Out of church I have not seen that love 
from any English : if they had any for us they would 
understand us." 

‘'You think if the English loved us they would under- 
stand us ? " 

“ Yes," he said ; “ but the English do not try." 

“ Hadassah ! " 

It was Stella's father who spoke. “ You must not linger 
if you wish to be in the house when the curtain goes up." 

“ I don't want to miss a moment of it," she said, as she 
instantly rose from her chair. With a smile to’ her cousin 
she left the room with her mother. Girgis Boutros suddenly 
felt that the door had closed between light and darkness. 


CHAPTER VI 


The opera-house was full when Hadassah Lekejian entered 
it with her mother and cousin. Her father and brother 
were already in their box. 

As she took her place many heads w'ere turned to look 
at her, for the overture was almost finished, and from the 
stalls the English officers and men had inspected, with 
their glasses, the occupants of the various boxes ; they were 
glad of a fresh arrival. 

The residents they knew by sight, and many of the 
visitors, for they had attended some, if not all, of the 
various hotel dances which had just commenced in Cairo. 

A man, himself a visitor, asked his companion, an 
engineer on the State railways, who the beautiful girl was. 

The engineer looked at her through his glasses. ‘‘ Don't 
know," he said ; ‘‘ yes I do, though — wait a minute — that's 
young Boutros ; he's a Copt, a cotton magnate, and that's 
his uncle, Nicolas Lekejian, and his wife ; she's an Irish 
woman. They're among the best Syrians in Cairo ; the old 
chap's an awfully decent sort . . . and that girl must be his 
daughter ; I heard she had come home." 

The stranger was silent ; then he asked, after looking at 
Stella again, Do you know them ? " 

‘‘Yes, slightly ... in business only." 

“You don't know the family ? " 

“ No, I once met the son, an awfully cultivated chap." 

“ Won't that girl know any one in Cairo ? " 

“If by that you mean the English or best French . . . 
no." 

The stranger was silent, but his glasses did not leave the 
girl's face ... he knew that she could not see him. After 
watching her expression very carefully he turned his glasses 
upon the occupants of the other boxes and then inspected 
the stalls. There were certainly one or two very pretty 

46 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


47 


girls in the house, especially amongst the Americans, but 
there was not another woman with Hadassah Lekejian's 
elegance or distinction. He thought he had never seen 
such clear eyes or such a transparent skin. She had taken 
her place by her mother, her cousin was seated on the other 
side of her, Nicolas and his father were standing behind 
them. He noticed that during the performance the occu- 
pants of Stella's box had ears and eyes for nothing but 
the opera itself. Even the cotton magnate, who looked a 
hundred times more Eastern than his cousin, never took 
his eyes o£P the artistes. But in the interval (he was watch- 
ing the girl very closely) he could see her rapid survey of 
the house, he could almost feel the sense of aloofness she 
felt from her fellow women. He leaned forward, and for a 
moment their eyes met ! . . . All her life Hadassah was to 
remember that look. 

Girgis Boutros was enjoying himself amazingly. He had 
never before been in such near contact or talked so freely 
to a young girl. He was an only son and all his relations 
on his father's side were old-fashioned Copts, who kept 
their women -kind as carefully secluded and as veiled as 
Moslems. He had therefore only spoken to his mother 
and aunt. To sit by Hadassah 's side, to be the recipient 
of her smiles and intelligent conversation, was almost more 
than his easily excited nature could stand. To Hadassah 
he looked like a statue carved in granite, with the glass eyes 
which the early sculptors gave to their heads ... to himself 
he felt like a thing of flaming Are. He longed to burst into 
poetry, to recite to her verses from Persian songs which 
expressed his admiration of her looks. 

In a box opposite to their own there was his mother, a 
beautiful woman, of a very classic type, dressed in an 
expensive Parisian model gown. She was Hadassah's 
father's sister, but she had not Nicolas Lekejian's in- 
telligent and very noble cast of features. Her face, for all 
its classic contour, was touched with the indolence and 
sensuality of the East. During the second interval Stella 
noticed that her aunt's box became full of visitors from all 
parts of the house, Greeks, Italians, and Syrians. 

‘‘ Levantines/' the engineer in the stalls styled them all. 
It was then that he pointed out to his companion the 
impossibility of knowing people like the Lekejians in- 


48 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


timately. “You let yourself in for knowing ‘ Levantines " 
like these/" he said, “ and they "re impossible."" 

And his words expressed Hadassah"s feelings. Girgis, 
her cousin, was very charming, he amused and interested 
her with his un-English ways of looking at things, and 
his very English way of wearing his clothes . . . but her 
aunt"s friends were impossible. Were they the people 
she ought to know ? Were they the only people who 
would accept her in this cruel land ? Their elaborate 
dresses of gorgeous brocades, their crude jewellery, their 
too ample figures, and, worst of all, the expression of their 
eyes and mouths, disgusted her. Stella thought of her own 
mouth : she would rather it went hard and sour with the 
bitterness of the cup that was now almost always between 
her lips than that it should become loose and coarse like 
those of the over-dressed, over-fed women in her aunt"s 
box. Her aunt looked a refined lady beside them — still, 
they were her friends. Then Stella asked herself, if her 
aunt had refused to have these people for her friends whom 
else would she have had . . . what friends had her mother ? 

Not one soul in this crowded house, in this opera-house, 
where she had rented a box ever since she had come as a 
bride to Cairo with Nicolas Lekejian, knew her well enough 
to pay her a friendly visit between the acts. She had 
not one drop of Eastern blood in her veins, and she 
looked beautiful and youthful in her white lace gown and 
brilliantly hued Persian scarf — but she was an outcast ! 

Hadassah could have screamed with shame, and yet she 
saw the impossibility of it all, she realized the distance by 
which her father"s people were removed from the people 
of the Western world. 

Girgis Boutros said, “ Do you know my mother ? "" 

“ No,"" Stella said. “ When I was a little girl I may have 
met her, but I don"t remember her."" 

“Will you let me introduce you to her, if you please ? "" 

Stella hesitated and looked at her own mother. Girgis 
thought she meant to imply that she could not go alone 
with him to his mother "s box. “ I will ask your mother ; 
she will come too, if you please."" 

“No, don"t ask her,"" Stella said : “I will meet your 
mother another time . . . not to-night, I like talking to 
you best."" 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


49 


He noted the anxiety in her voice, but he did not betray 
his understanding of it. Girgis never betrayed anything 
he did not wish to show. ‘‘ If you please,'' he said ; “ but 
my mother would be very happy to see her brother's child 
and introduce you to her friends." 

Stella could not gather from his way of speaking whether 
he meant to annoy her or to be polite to her, and he did 
not mean that she should ! He possessed the gift of 
thought-reading so common in the East. He Imew 
exactly what was passing in his beautiful cousin's mind 
about his mother's friends. He himself had no love for 
them, indeed he knew very few of them. In his opinion they 
were stupid and vulgar, but he resented what he termed 
Hadassah's English attitude towards all things which were 
not British. 

Stella did her utmost to be cheerful between the acts, 
and succeeded so well that even Nicolas thought she was 
enjoying herself. He knew that his cousin was much more 
Oriental in his opinion of women than he or his father were, 
and he had been just a little anxious to know how he would 
conduct himself for the long hours he would spend in 
Stella's company. 

But his mind had soon been set completely at rest by 
Girgis's attitude of respectful admiration. 

In the middle of the longest interval the Khedive and 
his suite entered the house. The house rose to its feet 
to greet him, and remained standing until he was seated. 
The orchestra played the Khedivial anthem. Only one 
figure in the house remained seated ; he was the leader of 
the advanced Nationalist party. So public an act of 
disrespect and disloyalty could not be allowed to pass 
unnoticed, and later on Stella heard that the Minister of 
Foreign Affairs, who was in the house, had sent for him and 
upbraided him for his behaviour, and that the Nationalist 
leader had insolently replied that no law obliged him to rise 
if he wished to remain seated, and had refused to apologize. 

The minister had thereupon ordered him to leave the 
house, which he did. 

Hadassah's father was furious. Girgis was wholly 
indifferent. . . . Stella was completely puzzled. 

“ But why should he insult the Khedive ? " Stella said. 
“ He's not English ! " 

4 


50 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


“ He recognizes English rule in Egypt and uses his 
influence to help that rule. He is contented to be a 
puppet in their hands."" 

I see,"" she said. '' Egypt for the Egyptians extends 
even to the Ediedive."" She was wondering if the Syrians 
and all other Christians would be ousted from the land 
with the English when the time came, or if the Copts would 
still be wanted to do the brain-work and the art- work and 
the dirty work of the country, as she had discovered that 
they had always done ever since the days when the Arabs 
invaded the land and brought into it the teachings of the 
Prophet. For the Arabs brought nothing with them but 
their war-like qualities and their art-destroying religion. 

She turned to her cousin, whose face told her nothing of 
what he was thinking. “ I know more about Home Pule 
for Ireland,"" she said, “ than Home Rule for Egypt. I 
feel I"m not qualified to speak, but the Egyptians do seem 
to me even less capable of managing their own affairs than 
the Irish. Why can"t they be contented with the peace 
and prosperity the English have given them ? "" 

Girgis thought for a moment. ‘‘ You are aflianced to an 
English soldier, if you please."" 

“ Yes,"" Stella said, “ what has that to do with it ? "" 
‘‘Will you ask him this question. If the German nation 
invaded England and conquered it, and made it many times 
more prosperous than it is now, if they improved the lives 
of the working classes, if they taught England all the 
wonderful things that are done in Germany for education 
and for the industrial life of the people, would England be 
so grateful to them that she would like to keep them there 
for ever, would she delight to sing their national anthems ? 
Would England honour one of her own people if he was 
contented to be a nominal king under German rule ? "" 
Stella did not answer. Fortunately for her, the curtain 
went up for the last act. 

Shortly after this unpleasant incident the British Agent"s 
wife entered her box — it was almost opposite the Lekejians. 
A number of people came with her, officers in full-dress 
uniforms and civilians wearing ribbons and orders. Evi- 
dently there had been a dinner-party at the British Agent"s 
house. After they had taken their seats Stella suddenly 
recognized one of the party as a man she had danced with 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


51 


many times at balls in Norfolk and met several times during 
her visits to Nancy. She bowed to him and received in 
return a bow and a warm smile. He seemed delighted to 
see her, and showed very plainly that he meant to come 
and speak to her. Presently she saw him whisper to a 
lady next to him, one of the most stiff-necked of the 
English residents : the lady turned her eyes to Stella's 
box while she spoke. Stella knew she was discussing her. 
From that moment the man never looked at her again 
during the performance. 

But that was not the finish of the evening's entertain- 
ment, or the end of Stella's mortification ; for Girgis Boutros, 
knowing that she wished to eat an Arab meal in an Arab 
restaurant, begged his aunt to allow him to leave the opera 
before the performance was finished and go to the high- 
class Arab restaurant which he often frequented and order 
a special supper, one which Stella would enjoy. 

Stella was delighted at the idea, so her mother agreed. 
Where there were no English to wound her pride Stella 
felt that she might enjoy a purely native evening in char- 
acteristic surroundings. 

So Girgis went on ahead, and if Stella could have heard 
the orders he gave to the cook and the owner of the place, 
she certainly would have enjoyed herself ; they sounded 
like some passage out of the Koran, so deferentially were 
they received, and so solemnly. 

When the party arrived the servants salaamed to the 
ground. They scarcely dared raise their eyes, yet they 
wondered how any one so beautiful could be so impure 
and so bold as to uncover her face in public ; how any 
one with the eyes of a gazelle could be so familiar with 
men, other than her father and brother, as to dine with 
them. 

Girgis had chosen the best and most secluded table in 
the room. He was very nervous, in case Stella would not 
think the supper nice enough, but it was all that money 
could procure on so short a notice. 

As there were no other guests in the room they had 
the entire attention of the waiters. They sat at long tables 
spread with white cloths, but they had no knives and 
forks or plates. Everything had to be eaten with their 
fingers, a process which Stella soon discovered was not 


52 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


nearly so disagreeable as she imagined, for the meat, of 
whatsoever kind it might be, was cut up into small pieces, 
and piled lightly on the top of water-cress or parsley. 
The large dish containing it was placed in the centre of 
the table. Each person was given a round scone of bread 
(like a Scotch harvester's bap), which Stella discovered 
was hollow when the top of it was torn off. These scones 
serve as pockets for the poor, who purchase their edibles 
ready cooked in the street. At table they act as plates 
and knives and forks. 

It was Girgis who showed Stella how to help herself to 
a piece of grilled meat, which was deliciously savoury, 
from the centre dish, with the assistance of a piece of 
bread. She had to be careful only to use the third finger 
and the thumb. When she had successfully carried the 
morsel from the centre of the table to her own scone she 
had to dip it in one of the four small dishes of appetizing 
sauces, which were placed in front of her. The whole 
thing was great fun, and the food was so fragrant and 
delicious that Stella ate heartily and forgot her troubles. 

Very soon the room filled up. 

Arabs came in and greeted each other in the stately 
Arab way — and the Copts as well as the Moslems washed 
at the fountain in the court which led off the dining-hall, 
before sitting down to their meals. It was a pretty sight, 
the beautiful dresses of the natives lending colour to 
the scene, a scene in which the lack of knives and forks 
by no means betokened a lack of etiquette and manners. 
There was a great deal of etiquette observed even amongst 
quite young men who had evidently come to enjoy them- 
selves. Stella had been so engrossed with the arrival of 
a new course that she had not noticed a party of Europeans 
enter the building. A tall screen hid the table at which 
they had quietly seated themselves. It was the next one 
to their own, and near the door. 

Presently her ear caught English voices : some one was 
answering a question. 

‘‘ Yes, when you get pure Arabs they're all riglit ; the 
unspoilt desert Arabs are hard to beat for honour as 
well as for bravery." 

‘‘ Are there many left ? " 

“ Not in Cairo itself . . . the Gyppie is a very different 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


53 


creature, but even the Gyppie, when he"s a Moslem, 
isn't so bad ; it's the Christian-Copts and Christian other 
things one can't stand." 

‘‘ What is a Copt ? " a girl's voice asked. 

'' The Gyppie that thinks himself a Christian." 

‘‘ I didn't know there were any," the girl said. I 
thought Egyptians were always Mohammedans." 

There was laughter. 

Did you never hear of the Arab invasion ? What 
did you think they were before the year six hundred, 
before the Arabs came ? " 

“ Pagans," the girl said lightly, ‘‘ weren't they ? " 

A third voice said, ‘‘ They're Pagans still pretty well, 
aren't they ? " 

The Copts are a fine mixture of Pagan, Moslem, and 
degraded early Christian ; for instance, they stick to the 
old Pagan idea that Thoth weighs the soul at death, the 
same thing we saw so often on the temples up the Nile, 
only they have substituted the archangel Michael for 
Thoth, and their funerals are far more Pagan than the 
Moslems'. They are a queer people." 

Stella lost the next few sentences. 

“ It's the beastly Levantines one can't bear in this 
country." 

‘‘ What are Levantines ? " the girl asked. 

Speaking broadly, we English class the Greeks, Syrians, 
Maltese, and Jews all under the heading of Levantines." 

A voice which had not spoken before said, In fact, 
anything that is not purely British. . . . Do the French 
come into that scathing category ? " 

There was so much sarcasm in the voice that Stella 
could not refrain from moving her chair just a little, so 
as to see the speaker. As she did so, her eyes for the second 
time that evening met the eyes of the stranger who had 
asked who she was in the opera-house. 

Her face suddenly became pale with indignation and 
shame. Try as she might, she could not conceal her 
feelings — tears had sprung into her eyes and filled them ; 
but the next moment she was listening to her cousin 
Girgis's description of a desert dancer he had seen about 
a week ago at the marriage of a wealthy Copt in the 
Fayyum. 


54 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


Her composure returned ; gradually her heart began to 
beat again at its ordinary pace ; she was able to under- 
stand what her cousin was talking about, though all the 
while in her ears there rang the words : “ It's these 

beastly Levantines that one can't bear in this country." 
She was, then, a Levantine ; Vernon would have to learn 
that from such people as she had been listening to. 

You are thinking again," her cousin said : “ your name 
suits you ; I feel that only half of you is here . . . your 
thoughts are in the stars very much ! " 

“ Oh, no ! " SteUa said. “ I am very interested. Can 
I see this lovely dancer ? How wonderful she must be ! " 

‘‘ It is not possible," he said. 

“ But why not ? " 

“ Sometimes she might come to dance in a very wealthy 
man's harem . . . but not for strangers." 

“ TFe are not strangers ; we live here ? " 

You do not live like the natives. They are proud, these 
dancers ; they will not dance to Western peoples." 

‘‘ But why ? " 

He raised his eyes in the ancient way. “ They can get 
all the money and jewels and adulation they want from 
people who can understand their art . . . why should 
they dance to please the ignorant and curious ? " 

“ Do they get much money ? " 

“ I have seen one dancer take away with her £200 
in money and many valuable jewels in one evening." 

“ Could I never see her ? " 

I think not ... if you please." 

“ But why not ? You say she dances for Christian 
Copts ? " 

‘‘ Your mother does not visit with any Copts who live 
like Moslems . . . she only knows a very few of the Catholic 
Christians, the Advanced Copts." 

“ It is all very confusing. In England I told people 
that the Christians in Egypt were like the Christians in 
England ... I had only known Advanced Catholic Copts, 
I suppose. Do your Copt cousins veil themselves and live 
apart from their men-kind like Moslems ? " 

‘‘ Most of them," he said, ‘‘ and if I marry one I shall 
never see her until half the marriagj ceremony is gone 
through ; they are very old-fashion^, these cousins." 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 55 

‘‘ And you will marry one ? '' Stella's voice was full 
of amazement. 

‘‘ I do not wish to now, if you please." 

Stella laughed, his meaning was so transparent. 

''You can laugh," he said, ‘‘ because you are going 
to marry the man you love." 

There was a pause in which the laugh died out of Stella's 
eyes, for her mind was quickly stormed with all that his 
words suggested ! She was going to marry the man 
she loved . . . what would that man have said if he had 
been here to-night ? ... if he had seen her at the opera 
scorned by his own nation, if he had heard her classed 
with Levantines ! 

To Girgis her eyes were in the stars again, so he lapsed 
into silence, while they continued to be served to many 
courses which seemed to repeat themselves over and over 
again — courses which consisted of such things as taib, 
or force-meat made of kidneys, and kebak, or very thin 
slices of grilled beef, served on beds of chopped parsley ; 
these were accompanied with a strange variety of salads 
served on exquisite enamelled dishes of bright blue (Stella 
had tasted one of sour-milk and garlic mixed into a sort of 
cream, and one of turnip with chopped gherkins, and one 
of tomatoes, onions, and parsley). A street musician had 
been playing on his long Egyptian flute ; its plaintive notes 
were very Oriental, and extremely monotonous. It is 
characteristic of Orientals that they never get tired of one 
short plaint, repeated over and over again. The extreme 
simplicity of the place amazed Stella : the waiters were all 
Arabs, dressed in ordinary blue-cotton galabeahs, and 
countless mangy cats crawled about from table to table, 
seeking food in a persistent and obnoxious way ; a dog 
would have been turned out of the place as unclean. 
Yet the building itself was a stately one, surrounded by 
flne stone columns. 

To do justice to the foreigners who had been discussing 
the Levantines so unflatteringly, it is only fair to admit 
that none of Stella's party had been seen by them until 
they rose to go ; it was only when Stella pushed out her 
chair, beyond their sheltering screen, that she had been 
seen. After that nothing more had been said. Fortun- 
ately, too, no one but Stella and her mother had heard 


66 


A WIFE OUT OF EC4YPT 


the remarks, for Girgis Boutros could not catch an English 
conversation, unless it was addressed directly to him, 
with intentional distinctness of pronunciation. He could 
not interpret half-tones. So it was only Stella who noticed 
the look of consternation and shame on the face of the 
engineer, who had evidently brought his two guests to 
supper in the Arab restaurant by way of entertaining them. 
He had been completely hidden behind the screen, and 
Stella knew that he imagined the restaurant held nothing 
but natives. His own party and Stella's were the only 
people in European dress in the room. Stella was generous 
enough to be sorry for him, yet the words he had said 
could never be unsaid ; she could never again feel herself 
anything but a Levantine in the eyes of an Englishman 
in Cairo. 


CHAPTER VII 


Vernon was in Egypt ! He had been gazetted to Cairo 
for December 18th, but had obtained a fortnight's leave 
because he wished to spend the time with Stella and 
her people up the Nile before he commenced his duties. 
The Lekejians' dahabeah was anchored off Luxor. Stella 
was impatiently waiting for the arrival of the Government 
mail-boat which was to bring her lover ; her mother, who 
was sitting on the deck drawing-room beside her, saw her 
agitation. When Stella was agitated or deeply moved, 
the slate-grey of her eyes deepened to black and her lips 
trembled. She had never once mentioned to her mother 
the wounds her pride had received, or said a word to show 
her natural nervousness about Vernon's arrival, but she 
had gladly agreed to her parents' tactful suggestion that 
they should spend the time with Vernon in their charm- 
ingly appointed dahabeah on the Nile. Neither mother 
nor daughter had ever hinted that it would be pleasanter 
to receive him out of Cairo ; it was silently understood. 

Dressed in spotless white, Stella looked enchanting. 
Her horror of Levantine splendour had cut her dressing 
down to the severest simplicity, which suited her youthful 
freshness. The only jewel she ever wore now was el 
sliahka, as Girgis called her engagement ring. 

At last she saw Nicolas, who had gone to meet the mail 
steamer, with Vernon by his side ; her whole being trembled 
with emotion, for her lover looked a splendid figure 
of English manhood. When he saw her standing under 
the deck awning of their house- boat he took off his hat 
and waved it triumphantly in the air ; his well-brushed 
hair shone in the sunlight like bright gold — how fair and 
British he looked ! In a very few moments he was on the 
deck beside her ; he had scarcely permitted the smart 
Sudanese boy, in a white jersey and green tarbush, to brush 

57 


58 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


the sand off his feet and trousers with an ostrich-feather 
broom ... he was so impatient to reach Stella. With 
the lightness of perfect physical training he vaulted or 
sprang over everything that came in his way. 

His greeting was to her mother first, who extinguished 
herself the next moment behind a tall palm, while Vernon 
folded Stella in his arms and kissed her. 

“ Oh ! do let me look at you,"" Stella said, when breath 
permitted her to speak ; ‘‘I can hardly believe it"s true 
that you are here in the flesh beside me."" 

“ Let me prove it,"" he said delightedly, ‘‘ though I can 
hardly believe it myself ! "" He put his arms round her 
again and kissed her smiling mouth. 

‘‘It is harder for me to believe it, dearest,"" she said 
tenderly. 

“ Why should it be ? "" he said. “ I kept thinking that 
the train would break down or the ship go to the bottom, 
or something else awful would happen to keep me away 
from you. The journey seemed unending ; the nearer I 
got to Luxor the longer the hours became."" 

Stella gave a contented sigh . . . but there was some- 
thing in the sigh which expressed more than content, it 
expressed a depth of emotion which the girl had never 
shown in the old days. 

He looked at her anxiously, she felt his desire to under- 
stand. “ So many things have happened to change my 
life,"" she said, ‘‘ and my beliefs, I was afraid you, too, 
might have changed ? "" 

“ Have you changed about me ? "" he asked quizzically ; 
“ but tell me what has so changed your life. Of course 
everything out here is awfully different, but what"s that 
got to do with you and me ? "" 

“ Just everything,"" she said softly ; “ but for this week 
at least you are still my own."" She clung to him as he 
raised her face to his. 

“ I"m yours for ever,"" he said soothingly ; “ don"t talk 
rot, Stella, not even in fun — it"s not kind."" 

She laughed. “ Then I won"t, dearest — and here come 
father and mother ; they"ve been giving us a few moments 
to get over our ‘ shyness." "" 

They both laughed and almost ran hand-in-hand to 
Mr. and Mrs. Lekejian. 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


59 


‘‘ Father, this is Vernon,'" Stella said ; “ he's awfully shy 
about meeting you, but I've told him you aren't a very 
frightening sort of a person, are you, darling ? " She kissed 
her father from the overflowing happiness in her heart. 

Vernon held out his hand : he liked the general ap- 
pearance of his prospective father-in-law, although it 
instantly brought the fact to his memory that Stella, 
on her father's side, was not English. ‘‘ I am a bit shy, 
sir, truly enough as SteUa says, for I can't see any earthly 
reason why you should approve of me as a son-in-law. 
Stella could have married any one in the world, and I am 
only a soldier with nothing worth mentioning to offer her 
but my devotion." 

“ That, coupled with an Englishman's sense of honour 
and the duty he owes his wife, is enough for me," Mr. 
Lekejian said, ‘‘ that is, of course, if my girl wants you." 
He looked laughingly at his daughter. I have sufficient 
worldly goods to endow her comfortably for life ; but re- 
member," he said more gravely, “ that in giving her to 
you I am trusting you with my most priceless possession." 
He let the young man's hand drop reluctantly. 

Vernon could not answer, for he knew the man's words 
were true, and he felt suddenly confronted with the real 
facts of the case, that he, a total stranger to this man, 
was going to take from him his most priceless possession, 
that he was accepting the responsibility of bestowing upon 
Stella a love and devotion which was to equal the devotion 
of her parents. It made him feel a conceited coxcomb . . . 
but as he could not express his deep appreciation of the 
honour Nicolas Lekejian was paying him, he merely said, 
‘‘ I will try not to forget, sir, indeed I will." 

Mrs. Lekejian, who was very fond of Vernon, said, with 
just a trace of her Irish brogue, wffiich still showed itself 
in moments of deep feeling : “ Indeed, I'm sure you will, 
Vernon, but we can't expect parents' heads on husbands' 
shoulders, can we, Stella ? I'm not afraid to trust you to 
Vernon's care." 

The smile Stella gave her mother was all love and 
gratitude. 

Enough had been said upon the subject of Vernon's 
future attitude as their son-in-law to permit of other topics 
being introduced. 


60 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


“ I'm glad you came straight to Luxor without staying 
in Cairo, for this is Egypt/' Nicolas the younger said. 
With his w^alking-stick he indicated the w^onderful view of 
the soft Theban hills bathed in the pink sunlight of Upper 
Egypt, and the plain where the far-spreading waters of the 
inundation of the Nile reflected the exquisite blue of tlie 
sky. ‘‘ Thebes lies there," he said, “ the w^orld's first 
great capital, the city of the Pharaohs who oppressed the 
children of Israel ; w^e can go there to-morrow if you like — 
it's a lovely ride ; to-night I thought w^e might walk to 
Karnak. The moon is almost full, and Karnak looks 
glorious by moonlight. Would you care to ? " 

“ Of course I'd like to go," Vernon said, but I'm 
awfully ignorant about Egypt. Please take it for granted 
that I know absolutely nothing . . . what is Karnak ? " 

Stella answered. “ Why should you know ? " she said 
sympathetically. ‘‘ Karnak was the ‘ mother-temple,' so to 
speak, of all the city temples of Thebes ; of all the temples 
in Egypt it is the grandest, though it's not the most perfect. 
You'll love it. Nicolas and I went there last night. You'll 
reverence mere men more after you have seen Karnak." 

“ I suppose I should have read up Egyptian history 
before I came out," Vernon said, “ but, to tell you the 
truth, I didn't think much about Egypt ; it was you I 
was coming to see." 

Their eyes answered each other understandingly, and 
Stella said laughingly : “ You're just taking Egypt throwm 
in with your pound of tea." 

I suppose I am, but anyhow, I never saw anything 
quite so amazing as that." He pointed to the perfect 
reflection in the water of the temple of Luxor, which stands 
so close to the river's bank that you can see it as clearly 
in the water as you can on the land. 

Its long row of lotus columns, which were tinted with 
the same delicate pink as the Theban hills, seemed to rise 
from the depths of the river like the buds of lilies striving 
to reach the sun. 

“ Isn't it exquisite ? " SteUa said. “ That's a part of the 
great temple at Karnak ; it was joined to it in ancient times 
by a paved avenue, lined on either side with crouching 
rams — half a mile in length. When we've had some tea 
and it's a little cooler, we'll go into Luxor temple if you 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 61 

like ; you ought to just see it before we visit Karnak, whose 
greater glory overshadows it/' 

“ I'd love to," Vernon said, “ though I'm a very poor 
sight-seer." 

“ You needn't take it very seriously," Nicolas said, 
“ but you'll enjoy seeing it. In the days when Thebes was 
the capital of Egypt, Karnak and Luxor were parts of the 
city — the Nile ran right through it. The modern Arabic 
name for the eastern portion of the city is El Aksar ; Luxor 
is merely a corruption of it." 

‘‘ I see," Vernon said ; ‘‘it is hard to imagine that aU 
this was once a city." He pointed towards the irrigated 
land, green with the first shoots of the coming crops, and 
the stretches of beautiful water which lay between the 
river's bank and the desert beyond, where the monuments 
which tell you of the past glory of Thebes are still standing. 

Nicolas soon left the lovers to themselves and, for at 
least one hour and a half, they talked of things which had 
little to do with the splendour of Thebes or the wonders of 
ancient Egypt. They were young, and they were in love, 
so the hour and a half seemed aU too short for the pleasure 
they had to crowd into it. Vernon had to submit to a fire 
of questions relating to his personal affairs and to Nancy's ; 
but for almost each question he answered, with the brevity 
for which Englishmen are famous, he demanded his reward, 
though Stella laughingly told him that she was much more 
generous in her payments than he was in the furnishing 
of his news. His letters had merely touched upon things 
she had longed to hear about more exhaustively, yet when 
she asked him to tell her he merely said, “ There's nothing 
more to tell." 

It was so comforting to feel that he was just the same 
as ever, that he had not changed in one iota, that Stella 
only laughed when he answered her questions in little more 
than monosyllables. And if for the first time it dawned 
upon her that the subjects which interested him were 
limited, and that even in that first hour many things had 
sprung to her lips to say which she held back in case they 
would bore him, she was not in the humour to be con- 
scious of it. The joy she felt in realizing that in his eyes 
at least — and he was typically English — ^she was perfect, 
made her blind to everything else. 


62 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


At half-past four Stella saw Benhadad, their grave butler, 
carrying the silver tea-tray laden with the tea-pot, coffee- 
pot, and cups and saucers. He wore a scarlet tarbush and 
a beautiful soft grey silk galabeah ; behind him walked 
another servant similarly dressed, bearing a tray with hot 
cakes, sandwiches, and biscuits. When the tea was ar- 
ranged, with great solemnity the taU Copt with the features 
of an ancient Egyptian came up to Stella and said in 
perfect English, ‘‘ Tea is served, sitt” 

Stella asked him something in Arabic. 

To which he answered : “ Aiwah sitt” and pointed to the 
delicately cut plate of jam sandwiches, and when Stella 
said something else to him in Arabic he again said with 
exquisite deference : ‘‘ Aiwah sitt” and clapped his hands. 
One of the small bare-footed Sudanese boys came running 
to him. Vernon w'as charmed with the lad's bright face 
and with the beauty of his slim, well-polished limbs. When 
Stella spoke to him he repeated, as his superior had done, 
“ Aiwah sitt, aiwah sitt,” and bowed his slim body almost 
double. 

The next second he had bounded off with the grace of 
an antelope to the bows of the boat. The sound of flute- 
music soon began, and the clear tink-tink-tinking of a 
“ bottle-and-key." 

Vernon looked to Stella for an explanation. 

‘‘ That's our private orchestra," she said laughingly, 
“ I thought you would like the ‘ real thing ' for your first 
afternoon. That's typical Nile music. The flute-player is 
quite a musician, the other instrument is nothing more 
than a glass bottle and key : it's very effective when the 
earthen drum comes in — ^you'll hear its deeper tum-tum- 
tumming soon." 

“ This is perfect, Stella," Vernon whispered ; “ heaven 
couldn't be better." 

Stella shivered and took a white woollen shawl from 
Yehla, her boy, who had silently appeared with it. 

Vernon folded it closely round her. ‘‘ How did he know 
that you wanted it ? " he asked. “ Did you make a sign 
to him ? I heard nothing." 

Stella smiled. ‘‘ No, I never did anything but feel the 
need of it . . . you'll soon find out that you have only to 
‘ think a thing ' in Egypt to have some servant hand it to 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 63 

you — just before sun-down it always gets chilly, a wind 
springs up/' 

“ How quickly things happen ! " he said ; it was awfully 
warm and bright about five minutes ago — it's getting a bit 
chilly certainly." 

“ The air will get warmer after the sun actually drops 
behind the line. All sorts of strange things happen at 
this hour in Egypt, especially on the Nile : objects on land 
look perfectly black during the actual glow of the sunset, 
and then everything for a time becomes drowned in an 
orange light. Then the sun drops , and a new mystery 
begins ; a fire springs up, as if it came from the imder- 
world, and sends up awful arms of fiames into the darken- 
ing heavens : you'll never forget your first Egyptian 
sunset." 

As she spoke the sonorous voice of the mueddin belonging 
to the mosque whose white minaret rises up so strangely 
from the splendid courtyard, which Rameses II. built to 
his pagan deity in the temple of Luxor, called the faithful 
to prayer. 

It was the maghrib or sunset prayer which, according to 
the Prophet's teaching, should be said a few moments after 
sunset, or a few moments before, for he would not allow 
his followers to commence their prayers exactly at sunrise 
or sunset, or sun down, because infidels worshipped the 
sun at such hours. 

Vernon listened to the ancient cry wonderingly : it was 
like a voice from another world ; there was a mystery in 
its beauty which was full of godliness. 

The next moment he saw the white-turbaned heads of 
the Mohammedans on the banks of the river bowdng to 
the earth, and many of the simple fellahin prostrating 
themselves on the ground until their foreheads touched the 
sand — not one grain of which would they brush off if it 
clung to their skin. 

Vernon noticed that Benhadad and the other servants 
on their house-boat did not take any notice of the call to 
prayer, but continued doing the w ork they were engaged 
in. Why don't your servants pray ? " he asked. He 
w^as wondering if Mr. Lekejian had forbidden them to do so. 

‘‘ Because they are Christians," she said. 

‘‘ Do you only employ Christian servants ? " 


64 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 

“ Yes, my father insists — except the Sudanese ‘ crew," of 
course."" 

I thought Mohammedans were always considered 
honester. Why does he have Christians ? "" 

“ Because we ourselves are Christians,"" Stella said, 
ignoring the first part of his remark. 

Well, naturally,"" he laughed. “ Have the missionaries 
converted these Johnnies ? "" 

Stella laughed this time. Their forefathers were con- 
verted in about the first century,"" she said. ‘‘ Christian 
missionaries haven "t been very successful since that time."" 

Vernon whistled. “ You don"t mean it ? "" 

“ Almost all the Copts are Christians,"" she said, “ and 
they pray seven times a day if tiiey"re strict, but not in 
public."" 

“ The what did you call them ? "" 

‘‘ Copts,"" Stella repeated laughingly, ‘‘ Copt is the 
European term, although it is derived from an Arabic word 
for the Egyptian Christian — the Egyptians who did not 
embrace Mohammedanism are all Copts. It"s the term now 
applied to all native Christians in Egypt, although origin- 
ally the word Copt only meant Egyptian — but don"t look 
as if I was speaking of the sacred bulls of Apis."" 

I don"t know what sort of bulls the Apis bulls are,"" he 
said simply. “ Look here, I do feel an awful duffer."" 

“ Copts are as nearly as possible the real descendants of 
the ancient Egyptians, the Egyptians who remained un- 
affected by the Arab invasion and Mohammedan religion. 
There are a few Moslem-Go^is, I think, but not many — 
native Christians converted in later days to Mohammedan- 
ism, but they are mostly in Upper Egypt in very out-lying 
villages. When the Egyptians, generally speaking, became 
Mohammedans they intermarried with the Arab invaders 
and with other Mohammedan races. The Christians only 
remained pure, except of course for the intermarrying which 
went on in the early Christian days before the Arab in- 
vasion by Amr in 640, and so they were called Copts to 
distinguish them as being the original Egyptians. Above 
all other people they represent the race of the ancient 
Egyptians to-day."" 

“ How awfully interesting ! "" he said. ‘‘ Are they in any 
way pure in the other senses of the word ? — are they a 


A WIPE OUT OP EGYPT 


65 


decent set of people, better than the ordinary ‘ missionary - 
made ^ Christians ? "" 

That depends on how you look upon the matter, 
she said . . . you will think them dreadful/' Her tone 
had suddenly become bitter. 

‘‘ Why do you say that . . . ? " it was the first time he 
had ever heard anything but sweetness from her lips. 

“ Because you are English," she said, and the English 
think it is the correct thing to despise their fellow-Christians 
in Egypt." 

‘‘ But are they fellow-Christians ? " he said. “ Are you 
sure they aren't just degraded Mohammedans who have 
sold their faith for the flesh-pots of the Christians ? " 

“ They are Christians of a strange sort," she said, “ Chris- 
tians who have suffered centuries of wrongs and humilia- 
tions and tortures for their beliefs ; they have endured such 
persecutions and injustices that only the letter of their 
religion is left, not the spirit. They aren't Christians as 
you and I accept the meaning of the word, but they are 
Christians insomuch that they have never lost hold of the 
teachings of the early Church of Christ. None of them, 
poor things, know anything about the beauty or humanity 
of His doctrines, not even as much as the Mohammedans 
do." 

How strange," he said, ‘‘ to have hung on to the 
‘ Church ' for all these centuries and have lost Christ ! 
What a tenacious people ! " 

“ Of course there are some Copts who love Christ and 
love humanity through Him — they do crop up now and 
again — and there are a few saintly names even in modern 
Coptic history, but not many. I'm speaking now of the 
people ; not of the highly educated upper-class Copts." 

“ What a lot I have to learn, darling ! I don't know 
where to begin." 

“ Oh, you needn't bother about the Copts,'' Stella said 
hastily — again bitterness was in her voice — “ no English- 
man ever does learn the real truth about them or tries 
to find out any good in them. To the tourist the Copt 
isn't such an effective asset in the landscape as the Mussul- 
man, who prays devoutly in the desert, or in the crowded 
street, or in the noisy railway station in the most pic- 
turesque fashion ; the Copts have far longer prayers to 
5 


66 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 

say five times each day, but strangers don't hear 
them." 

“ I believe you're awfully keen about these Copts," he 
said ; “ what's at the back of it all ? Have I annoyed 
you ? " 

“ I'm not keen about them," she said slowly, I'm 
sorry to say I'm rather the reverse ; but since I've been in 
Cairo I've tried to study a little about them, and father 
has told me lots of things which account for their un- 
pleasant characteristics. I've read their history, and I've 
come to the conclusion that if they had given up their 
faith and turned Mohammedans . . she sighed, “ in 
fact, if all Christians in the East were Mohammedans, it 
would be better for them ; the English, in spite of being 
Christians themselves, would respect them more if they 
were." 

‘‘That sounds as though Mohammedanism was the better 
religion of the two, at least for Orientals." 

“ But don't you think the English ought to admire 
the Copts for sticking to their beliefs even though they 
have lost the real beauty of Christ's teachings ? It's 
hardly their own fault that they've become what they 
are. A despised people becomes servile ! " 

“ I suppose the English do admire them ? " 

“ I don't think so." 

“ Why not ? " 

“ Because they won't have anything to do with them, 
they treat them as outcasts "... her indignation was 
rising. . . . “ But, dearest," she said, “ don't let me talk 
about it so soon, let me forget that there ever were such 
things as Jacobite-Copts and Uniat-Copts and Levantines." 

“ Whatever is a Uniat-Copt ? " he asked. “ I never 
heard of such a lot of strange peoples ? " 

“ A Catholic Copt . . . which means a Roman Catholic 
belonging to the Egyptian Christian Church. There aren't 
very many of them, and they have only existed for about 
a hundred and fifty years. My father is a Uniat-Copt, 
although he is a Syrian." 

Vernon looked at her in astonishment. “ Your father ? " 
he said slowly ; “ is he a Copt ? " 

“ Not in the original meaning of the word," she said, 
“ because he is a Syrian, but for many generations his 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


67 


people have lived in Egypt and belonged to the Mono- 
physites party, which meant that they sympathized 
with the Egyptian Christians and not with the Melchites, 
who include most non-indigenous Christians in their fold. 
Speaking broadly, a Copt means a native Christian, and 
my father is not a native, although he goes to the Coptic 
Uniat church."" 

‘‘ I see,"" Vernon said slowly ; ‘‘ I hadn"t realized that."" 

“I knew you hadn"t."" Stella spoke nervously. The 
whole subject of the Christian Church in Egypt is so compli- 
cated that I don"t know now if I have told you quite 
correctly about it."" 

He took her hand in his and pressed it to his lips. 
Ardently he kissed the tip of each of her pretty fingers. 

Dearest,"" he said, “ I don"t know why we are talking 
so much about the Church and all the funny sorts of Chris- 
tians there are in the world in the first hours we are 
together ; let"s talk about nicer things, things that we"ve 
wanted to know for all these unending months. Did you 
miss me awfully, dearest ? . . . your letters were sweet, 
I nearly know them all by heart. But you are clever ! 
Did you think mine awful rot ? "" 

The kiss he took from her smiling lips was Stella"s 
only answer to his question, for his devotion had brought 
back her softest expression ; in his light fiannels he looked 
so delightfully fair and athletic that her heart overflowed 
with pride. In a land of almond-skinned and black 
haired people, he seemed a creature of almost unnatural 
colouring. In a totally different way his features were as 
correct as an Egyptian"s, they were straight and short ; 
and his teeth, though they were almost as perfect as 
Girgis Boutros"s, were not the marked features in his 
face which the beautiful teeth of an Oriental always appear 
to be. 

‘‘ If you"ve had enough tea,"" she said, drawing away her 
hand because laughingly she declared that “ his kisses had 
made it sticky,"" ‘'let"s go ashore and look at the temple, 
it will be too dark if we don"t go at once : I"ll just tell 
mother."" Stella knew very well why they had been 
discussing the subject of Christians and Copts, but she 
did not inform her lover. It was because suggestion was 
forcing her to speak about the last topic in the world 


68 


A WIPE OUT OF EGYPT 


that she ever wished him to hear. Had she not arranged 
to meet him at Luxor so as to get away from her fellow- 
Christians in Cairo ? Her conversation had shown her 
that Vernon had as little idea of the real facts of her 
social position in Egypt as she had had before her arrival 
in Cairo, and she could not tell him, for Stella was experi- 
encing what thousands of women have experienced before, 
a certain shyness and lack of ease with the lover from 
whom she had been parted for so many months. All the 
wonderful things she had imagined herself saying to him 
when they first met again w^ere forgotten ; or, if they were 
not forgotten they could not be said ; the old intimacy of 
their minds seemed as if it had never been ; she felt that 
she would have to see him many, many times before she 
could get back to the delicious sense of rest which his 
presence had once afforded her. And so she had sug- 
gested going ashore and amusing themselves in a way 
which might help her to get over the foolish embarrass- 
ment she felt in his presence. The idea that she wwild 
not exactly know what to say to Vernon when they first 
met had never entered her head, for her mind had always 
been full of a thousand things she wanted to say . . . 
but where were they now ? 

They had no sooner set foot on shore than they were 
surrounded by long-legged, dark-eyed donkey boys, in 
short, white shirts and white skull-caps, made of coarse 
crochet, who pestered their lives out to engage them for 
the hour, or the week, or the year. Their wit was as 
ingenious and their brown limbs were so perfect that 
Vernon felt inclined to engage at least half a dozen of 
them, especially since their white donkeys were almost as 
tall 'as small ponies, and as exquisitely groomed and as 
elaborately harnessed as the picture donkeys he had seen 
in Eastern fairy tales. When the brilliant -eyed rascals 
became too persistent Stella let them know that she could 
speak Arabic. Instantly their seemingly modest prices 
fell to about the quarter of what they had been asking. 
After that they did not seem so anxious to be engaged 
for the week or for the year ! 

There was a good deal of whispering amongst them, for 
they could not understand why a lady who had never 
been in Luxor before should speak Arabic like a native, 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


69 


while her husband with the red face did not know one 
word : the pink skin of the Anglo-Saxon is always red 
in an Eastern's eyes. The Egyptian donkey-boy never 
forgets a face ... it is part of his business not to ; and 
they were quite right, Stella had never been in Luxor 
before. Countless curio-dealers in the most flagrant 
shams implored them to buy their wares, all of which 
were laid out on the dusty highway which divides the 
temple of Luxor from the river. Vivid green sphinxes, 
freshly mummied " hawks, and images of the god 
Osiris in every possible form were amongst the most 
popular. In the whole lot there was not one thing worth 
buying, but the salesmen's patter of broken English Avas 
so droll that Vernon and Stella lingered over this curio- 
market for a considerable time. The natives alw^ays 
addressed Stella as “ My beautiful lady," and spoke of 
Vernon as ‘‘ Your genleman." 

‘‘ Your gen-le-man he buy you this very nice god Osiris ; 
him very lucky, my lady ; you buy what price you 
like ! " 

‘‘ Yes, my lady, him very ancient, two weeks back him 
dug up in Thebes . . . my word is true, my lady . . . 
very cheap god." 

But the only thing Vernon did buy was a fly-switch, 
as Stella had forgotten to bring her own ashore, and 
he rather fancied one with very long white hair and a 
blue-beaded handle, flnished with a tassel of small white 
cowrie shells. 

Of course he had never seen such flies : they were as 
biblical as the asses, and as the stately figures of the elderly 
Mohammedans, who one and all looked like descendants 
of Moses and the prophets. But if he was disgusted with 
the flies he was delighted with the costumes of the natives 
and with the strange riot of colour. And Stella was 
enchanted, for until their journey to Luxor her sight- 
seeing had been restricted to mediaeval Cairo, the Pyra- 
mids of Gizeh, and the ruins of Memphis, which lies in the 
Delta. When they entered the temple they were thrilled 
with the peculiar thrill which only Egypt can produce. 
Its vast colonnade, formed of lotus-bud columns, had been 
glorious as they had seen it from their boat, reflected in 
the waters of the Nile ; in the quiet evening light its columns 


70 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


of sandstone seemed a part of God’s conception of this 
strange land of sand and stone. 

After a little time, when they had wandered through the 
various parts of the vast ruin and glanced at some of the 
most striking reliefs and statues, Vernon suggested that 
they should sit down and ‘Hake an easy” — he wanted to 
have Stella’s thoughts centred on himself again. Stella 
had soon discovered that it was the general grandeur and 
the magic effect of the colouring which appealed to him ; 
the history and meaning of the various parts of the 
temple bored him, though he tried not to show it when 
he saw her joy in looking at certain reliefs and statues 
which she recognized as relating to the little store of 
Egyptology she had laid up in her memory. When they 
came across cartouches and reliefs which had obviously been 
damaged by vindictive hands, Vernon asked if it was 
the work of fanatical Mohammedans. He knew they 
hated graven images and “ false gods.” When Stella told 
him that it was either the work of Christians, or it might 
be of the heretic king Amen-hetep IV., who tried to over- 
throw the gods of the priests of Amon and teach the 
children of Egypt, more than one thousand years before 
Christ’s coming, almost the same religious beliefs and 
morals as the broad-minded and intellectual classes in the 
world are accepting to-day, he said “by Jove ! ” and no 
more. To Stella the character of this great reformer 
was tremendously interesting, and his life’s story strangely 
pathetic, so much so that she tried to interest her lover 
in his personality. But Vernon said he could not picture 
to himself the personality of any real individual who 
existed so long ago ; besides, he thought he must have 
been a beastly fanatic to have hacked about the reliefs and 
destroyed the images of the gods of his people, the sort of 
crank that wouldn’t be tolerated by decent people to-day. 

“ I hate fanatics,” he said ; “ I have no use for them.” 

“ But Christianity has only endured through fanaticism,” 
Stella said ; “ no religion, however great, could have survived 
the cruel persecution of other sects and the neglect of 
the apathetic but for its fanatics. This temple has suffered 
far more damage from the fanaticism of the religious 
enthusiasts than it has ever done from earthquakes or 
the mutilation of the ignorant.” 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


71 


They had seated themselves on the drum of a fallen 
column, and Stella was telling him about the early Christian 
church that had once been built into a part of the temple, 
and how the Christians in their mad zeal had smashed the 
statues, disfigured the reliefs, and desecrated the shrines, 
not only in the portion they had selected for their church 
but in the temple generally, when she suddenly stopped 
and looked round, for she heard a footstep close behind 
her. As she turned to see who it was her eyes met the 
eyes of the man who had looked at her with so much 
interest on the night at the opera. His personality had 
never faded from her memory ; his strong face had ap- 
peared to her over and over again at the most unlikely 
moments. Now, for a reason she was totally unconscious 
of, she felt the hot blood fiy to her face. 

He lifted his hat. “ I hope you will forgive me,"" he 
said — I have been listening to what you said about the 
Christian church because I was so much interested, and 
I was waiting to give you this . . . you dropped it when 
you rose from where you were sitting near the chapel of 
Mut. I happened to hear it fall or I should not have 
seen it."" 

Stella took the object he handed to her eagerly. Oh, 
thank you so much!"" she said, ‘'I wouldn"t have lost it 
for worlds. I wonder how it came off."" She looked at her 
gold chain from which the charm had become detached ; 
there were other two charms still left on it. One was a 
silver hand of Fatma (the daughter of the Prophet), in 
ancient filigree work ; the other was an Italian charm in 
silver representing St. Joseph and the infant Christ: the 
face of the bambino had been almost obliterated with 
kissing long before Stella possessed it. The one which 
had just been restored was a triangle of dull green stone, 
with a hole drilled through it large enough to hold a 
thick string. It almost resembled a heart. 

The stranger smiled when he saw the Christian, Pagan, 
and Mohammedan charms hanging on the same chain. 
“You are well protected ! "" 

Stella"s eyes smiled back . . . ‘‘The one you found,"" 
she held out the greenish stone, “is pre-Sikelian ; it would 
have been dreadful to have lost it— found in the ruins 
here what confusion it might have caused ! "" 


72 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


“ May I look at it ? he said. He caressed the smooth 
surface of the time-worn stone with appreciative fingers. 
“ I don't know the stone ; where did it come from ? " 

“ I got it at Ferento, near Viterbo in Italy ; I thought 
it was Roman, for there is an old Roman theatre there, 
and lots of Roman remains, but an authority told me 
it was perhaps pre-Sikelian." She turned to Vernon : 
“ You've not seen it. I like to think it has been worn 
by an unknovm people." 

“ I wonder what unknown evil it was supposed to avert," 
the stranger said, ‘‘or what unknown good it was to bring ; 
but if it was worn by a woman it no doubt possessed the 
same old virtues as all the other charms worn by primitive 
women possessed ; their amulets have never changed." 

“ What virtue was that ? " Vernon asked ; “ what did 
they wear it for ? " 

The girl's eyes half met the eyes of the stranger ; they 
both knew ! Already she had discovered that there was 
much this stranger understood which Vernon did not. 

‘‘ To ensure the birth of sons and keep the love of their 
husbands." It was the stranger who spoke. 

Vernon laughed. “ They had only two ideas, two 
desires, poor things ? " 

“ They are the first desires of every woman still," the 
stranger said ; “ modern or ancient, the real woman 
changes very little. One notices that in the carvings on 
the temples the Egyptians seem to have allowed their 
women as much freedom as the Greeks : the kings and 
queens are often represented together. There are some 
fine women in Egyptian history." 

“ Yes, indeed ; if Egypt never produced a ‘ Sappho,' it 
undoubtedly has its Queen Elizabeth, and a very remarkable 
one too ; the women of ancient Egypt appear to have been 
far less restricted than the modern Mohammedan women 
are. I wonder when the custom of veiling and all the other 
restrictions began — ^far before the Prophet's time, of 
course." 

“ It's a curious thing," the stranger said, “ the way 
women have asserted themselves in history, even in the 
countries where they apparently play unimportant parts. 
Japan had a woman for one of its finest poet-philosophers, 
China has had an Empress whose name will never die out 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


73 


in the history of her country, Egypt had Queen Hatshep- 
set, and Assyria Semiramis ; the Jews had many famous 
women, the fair Esther amongst their number/" 

Vernon remained almost silent while Stella and the 
stranger let their conversation drift from one topic to 
another. There was an unconscious chord of sympathy 
between them which facilitated conversation, and to those 
who have travelled in strange lands the understanding of 
so unconventional an incident needs no explanation. 

When the stranger left them Vernon said, How do you 
know all these things ? That chap could have talked on for 
ever."" 

‘‘ I suppose he"s lonely. Did he bore you? I am so sorry. 
I thought he was very interesting : he can read most of the 
cartouches, and he seems to be as taken as I am with 
the character of Amen-hetep IV. . . .he appears to have 
read everything there is to be read about him."" 

“ Amen . . . what did you say — who was the chap ? 

‘‘ The heretic king I spoke to you about who tried to 
overthrow the power of the political priests of Amon-Ra, 
and teach his people the religion of Truth and Beauty, 
and the belief that God is in all things — that in worshipping 
the beauties of nature you are worshipping God."" 

Vernon laughed. “ Good Lord ! Who was Amon-Ra ? "" 

“ The god who was the supreme god over all the gods in 
Egypt for a very long period ; the priests of Amon-Ra were 
as strong a political body as the Popes of Rome, and for a 
far longer period of history."" 

Vernon looked at Stella with a growing wonder in his 
eyes. ‘‘You talk of all these Johnnies as if they were quite 
real ; they seem as familiar to you as historical characters 
like Becket and Wolsey are to English school- boys."" 

“ Indeed, I"m not familiar with them — I wish I were ; 
but they are awfully real to me. All this is awfully real/" 
She pointed to the reliefs carved on the walls. “ It"s awfully 
real because Egypt was the beginning of everything ; I 
feel that it was the nursery from which we all sprang. 
Maspero says that ‘ Egypt is the mother of most of the 
ideas that have ruled the world, and the children of that 
mother are the Copts." "" 

“ And I feel that you"re awfully clever,"" he said, putting 
his arm tenderly round her. “ I"m getting rather alarmed."" 


74 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


Stella turned to him quickly, and looked at him with 
fear in her eyes. “Don't say that, dearest, it makes me 
feel I'm a bore . . . men, when they know ever so much about 
a subject, keep it all to themselves ; women, when they know 
ever so little, talk about it all the time." She sighed. 
“You see, I've w^anted to see Upper Egypt, and especially 
Luxor, for as long as I can remember, and now that I'm 
actually here, well, it seems too wonderful." She linked her 
arm in his, and lover-like, they again wandered slowly 
round the great building, looking at things casually and 
quickly because the girl felt that the man at her side was 
only interested in the magnificence of the masonry and the 
gigantic size of the stones and columns ; that he only 
listened to what she told him about the various courts 
and sanctuaries to please her ; that without her by his side 
he would not have looked at them at all. 

If there was a twinge of disappointment in Stella's heart 
she was unaware of it, for Vernon was to her so whole- 
souledly the thing she loved, that it never entered her head 
to expect any more from him. What he did not take a 
great interest in she felt rather ashamed of enjoying so 
much ; what did arouse his interest, the exact measurements 
and size, she accepted as too scientific for her to comprehend. 
In the intervals between his love-making, which was cer- 
tainly excusable after not having seen her for almost a year, 
and Stella had never looked more attractive, the girl found 
her thoughts going back to some of the things the stranger 
had been talking about ; he had asked her, for instance, if 
any attempt had ever been made to discover the embalmed 
body of Jacob in the cave of the field of Machpelah, for it 
is plainly enough stated in the Bible that Joseph, who was 
in Egypt at the time of his father's death, had Jacob's body 
brought to Egypt and most expensively embalmed, and 
then sent back to the land of Canaan to be buried in the 
cave which Abraham had bought for a family burying-place 
from Ephron the Hittite. As Jacob's body took four days 
to embalm, it must have cost Joseph about £240, for that 
was the cost of mummifying a body in the first-class 
manner at the time. More than once Stella wondered who 
the stranger could be, and if she would ever see him again. 
How delightful it would be, she thought, to have such a man 
in their party when they were doing the ancient monuments ! 


CHAPTER VIII 


When they returned to the dahabeah Nicolas met them 
at the gangway with the announcement that Girgis Boutros 
had arrived, and was discussing some important business 
with their father. Nicolas watched Stella very closely as 
he spoke ; he saw her face turn a shade paler and her upper 
lip tremble. She turned instantly to Vernon. Girgis 
is my cousin/" she said ; “ he is a cotton farmer in the 
Fayyum ; he will interest you, I think."" There was no 
time for more talk at the moment, for one of the silent- 
moving servants, in his jebba of yellow and black striped 
silk, suddenly began clashing a dinner gong. It seemed to 
give this dignified figure of the East infinite pleasure to 
break the stillness of the Theban evening by banging on 
an instrument shaped like an iron shield with a drumstick 
as loudly as he possibly could. 

Before the second gong had sounded Stella and her lover 
were both on deck : it was an ideal lovers" hour, full of the 
sensuous beauty of the East. 

Vernon noticed the exquisite simplicity of Stella"s dinner 
gown ; her slim straightness appealed to his athletic eye 
as she stood outlined against the violet dark of the night 
sky ; the moon had not yet climbed the Theban hills, but 
the first evening star was glowing in the sky like a ship"s 
light above them on a high mast. While Stella had been 
dressing curious thoughts had been drifting across her mind, 
half-formed thoughts which made her angry with herself, 
for they had arisen from the fact that the things which 
the stranger had said to her in the temple had opened up a 
sort of chasm in her mind as regards Vernon. Quite un- 
consciously she had asked herself the question, ‘‘ When 
Vernon is not making love to me what shall we talk about ? 
What have we in common ? What did we talk about 
before we were engaged ? Now we only seem to talk about 

75 


76 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


ourselves. Shall I bore him in the future ? Do I even 
bore him now ? Then the idea that she might be robbed 
of his love reduced her to a state of almost nervous ex- 
haustion. Now, standing beside him in the terrible “ still- 
ness of Africa,"" under a limitless sky, a sky whose darkness 
gave shelter to the unseen things of ancient Thebes, things 
which find cover in the day-time in the tombs of Pharaohs 
and in the secret places of the sanctuaries, but which draw 
ever nearer and ever nearer to human souls by night, she 
was conscious only of the security and delight she felt in 
his near presence ; a sudden re-establishing of her faith 
in herself came to her. What did it matter if they never 
talked at all, when their silence was full of such eloquent 
understanding ? Her fear that she had bored him with her 
more serious enjoyment of the temple was quickly wiped 
out, for in his eyes she read an increasing passion for her- 
self. The contrast between them was striking : Vernon, 
with all his boyish fairness, had the muscular activity of the 
biblical David in his limbs, and his blue eyes held but one 
expression, his desire for the girl at his side ; Stella"s dark 
hair intensified the ivory pallor of her clear skin ; her lean 
body, in its virginal purity, looked like the figure of some 
dancing girl of ancient Egypt, but unlike her lover"s, 
her eyes held not one, but many expressions in their 
mysterious depths. Her love for the man at her side was 
the surface-light which made the dark waters shine like 
bottomless lakes. 

The feelings Vernon roused in her were feelings she did 
not understand, and as they stirred her into a state of 
exaltation she interpreted them as the highest love a woman 
cj.n feel, her love for the man whom Fate has destined 
to be her other half. Miss MacNaughtan had taught her 
favourite pupil many things, as much as the most broad- 
minded teacher could have taught a highly strung, sensitive 
girl of twenty ; but Stella was left to discover for herself 
the vital truths of life which no woman can teach another. 

“ Stella,"" Vernon suddenly said, “ you look so sweet, 
I shan"t eat one bit of dinner ; you really haven"t any right 
to look so delicious. I must hold you in my arms for one 
minute."" They were standing in the bows of the boat, which 
were curtained off on all sides but the front, so as to form 
a small smoking-room for the evening when it was chilly. 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


77 


Stella leant gently towards him. She w^as pliant as a 
river reed, and so slender that he swore he could scarcely 
feel her in his arms. As he pressed kisses on her white 
throat and closed eyes, she was passive in his arms, and 
unconsciously responsive to his demands. Suddenly they 
started apart, for Girgis Boutros had silently entered the 
curtained enclosure. 

Vernon looked as though he had seen a ghost, for never 
before had Girgis looked so curiously Egyptian. His dark 
eyes shone with anger, his white teeth gleamed under the 
cruel smile which curled his clearly cut lips — Eastern lips 
as blood-red as the scarlet of his high tarbush, which gave 
an added height to his splendid physique. For a moment 
there was silence, and in that moment Stella knew that 
the two men would one day hate each other. 

Quickly regaining her composure she said, Vernon, this 
is my cousin Girgis Boutros. Girgis, this is the Englishman 
I am going to marry, Vernon Thorpe."" 

Girgis inclined his head but the quarter of an inch, he 
did not hold out his hand. Vernon, who had not yet got 
over the shock of seeing what he called a full-blooded 
“ ancient Egyptian,"" in evening dress, suddenly drop down 
from the stars (for he had quite forgotten the fact that 
Stella had mentioned the coming of her cousin), said to the 
stone image with flashing eyes, How do you do ? "" in a 
stiff and meaningless English fashion ; he didn"t in the 
least care how the fellow was, he only wished one thing, 
that the image with moving eyes of black glass would jolly 
well take itself back to wheresoever it had come from, if 
it was from some Pharaoh"s tomb or from the mural decora- 
tion of the temple they had just quitted, and leave him 
alone with Stella. 

But Girgis did not go ; he stood motionless, rooted to the 
deck, nor could he speak, for his brain was on fire and his 
passions were maddened by the thought of what he had seen. 

He had seen his cousin Hadassah (his pure, virgin cousin 
as he had thought), his uncle"s cherished daughter, in the 
arms of this red-faced Englishman, this Englishman who 
was looking at him now with all the contempt that an 
Englishman shows in his eyes for a man whose skin is 
darker than his own. It was impossible for him to believe 
that Stella had not lost her virginity. She had certainly 


78 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


told him that English girls knew the men quite intimately 
whom they meant to marry, but such an outrageous thing 
as a lover holding a girl in his arms and kissing her before 
she was his wife was only possible when the girl had been 
his mistress. 

“ What has suddenly brought you to Luxor, Girgis ? '' 
Stella said. “ Is anything wrong ? '' 

“I have told your father,"' he said ; “we cannot discuss 
it, if you please." 

Stella smiled and turned to Vernon. “ That is how he 
speaks to me when anything of political importance occurs." 
She turned to her cousin : “I read about the disturbances 
in Asiut, and all about the coming election of a new Mudir. 
If the Copt is elected there will be no end of trouble, won't 
there ? " 

“ He will not be elected," Girgis said, “ and yet there will 
be trouble." 

“ Wliat news have you brought, Girgis ? " Stella said ; 
“ please tell me : I am not a child — I must hear it all even- 
tually." 

“ You are a woman. I cannot tell you, if you please. 
But the English will never allow the election of a Coj^t as 
Mudir, even in Asiut." 

“ How could they ? " Stella said; “ you know quite well, 
Girgis, that the position of a Copt Mudir would be an im- 
possible one.'" 

“ Why ? " Vernon asked. “ What is a Mudir ? " 

“ A Mudir holds a high executive post," Stella said, “ for 
which a Copt, with his inability to rule, is totally iinsuited. 
His ovm life would be in danger, as well as those of the 
authorities who supported him." 

“ Wliy ? " Vernon asked. 

“ Because Copts may be prosperous," Stella said, “ but 
they are not popular, and my cousin knows it." 

“ Boutros Pasha ! do not forget him, if you please." 

“ Oh ! he was an exception." 

“ There may be many exceptions if the English would 
give them the opportunity or look for them." 

Vernon listened to him keenly. So Stella's cousin was 
anti-English as well as a full-blooded native ! How strange 
it all was ! He felt suddenly as if he were a new creature 
transported to a new planet. 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


79 


Stella laughed. “ Oh, Girgis, you know quite well the 
English have tried them in lots of posts, but where a man 
of action is needed ... a man who can command ready 
obedience from his subordinates and the population 
generally, they were failures — ^you can't deny it." 

‘‘ What chance have they to learn to command when 
they are always treated as subordinates — subordinates to 
Moslems in a country ruled by Christians ? But I tell you 
it will not always be so : the Copts have the brains of the 
country, and brains will win in the end." 

If they have no executive qualities they will always 
have to use their brains for men who can rule ; in history 
that has always been the case, you foolish boy." 

‘‘ To you I may seem very foolish, but wait and see : 
the English will not always . . ." he stopped, for at that 
moment the dinner-gong sounded for the second time. As 
they walked towards the dining-room, Stella said to Vernon, 
“ Please don't think I have no sympathy for the Copts ; I 
have, but I think they are mistaken, their grievances are 
exaggerated ; and Girgis knows better than most of us 
how totally unfit a Copt is to hold the position of Mudir 
even at Asiut, where nearly all the inhabitants are Chris- 
tians : but we must avoid politics with Girgis ; .he's awfully 
wrong-headed ; he'll know better when he's older." 

'' How complicated politics are out here ! " he said. I 
thought there was only the Pan-Islamic trouble with the 
English, I had no idea we were so hated all round." 

“ You aren't hated, and you are hated," SteUa said : 
the feeling can't be explained, but you will soon under- 
stand, and if you're just, you'll see how stiff-necked the 
British are ; I sympathize with the Copts a great deal 
except when I'm with Girgis ... he goes too far ; I feel 
very English with him, which angers him most awfully." 
" In what way are the British stiff-necked ? " 

Stella flushed. '' Oh, in lots of ways ! " 

" Why is your cousin so bitter ? " he said. Does he 
want a job ? " 

Stella laughed. ‘‘ Want a job ? Oh ! no, it's partly, 
I think, because his father's people are Copts, and he 
resents the position the Copts hold in the eyes of the 
Government : they fill all sorts of posts as clerks (in the 
administrative section of the service there are far more 


80 


A WIPE OUT OP EGYPT 


Copts than Moslems), but they hold none of the higher 
posts . . . none of the well-paid positions of authority. 
Girgis is very wealthy — he has no personal grudge."" Stella 
could not help smiling to herself at the idea of Girgis, with 
all his wealth, wanting a job. 

While they had been talking, Girgis had become lost 
to sight. 

Vernon took her hand in his. “ It"s awfully hard to 
realize that you"re his first cousin, dear."" 

“ Girgis is rather a dear,"" Stella said (she instantly 
resented what’ Vernon "s words conveyed), “ and you 11 
soon discover that Stella Adair died when she left England 
nine months ago . . ."" she looked at him with passionate 
eyes . . . “you must try to love Hadassah Lekejian a 
little, Vernon."" 

“ You darling ! "" he said, “ I only wish w^e were married 
and alone, just you and I, on this Nile boat, with no Copt 
cousin or gassing strangers to take you away for one 
minute from me."" 

Stella laughed happily. ‘‘ Were you jealous of the 
stranger in the temple, dear ? I believe you were ! "" 

“ Of course I was,"" he said ; “he made me feel how stupid 
I was, how little I could talk to you about all the things 
that interest you."" He paused and then said quickly, 
“You didn"t use to care about all these things."" 

She pressed his hand and whispered. “ Always be 
jealous like that, Vernon ; always think these things."" 

They had entered the dining-room, and Vernon was 
amazed at the sight the dinner-table presented. In a 
land where no fiowers grow except in the irrigated gardens 
of the wealthy and in public grounds it was an unexpected 
pleasure to see exquisite flowers on a dinner-table. The 
low lights, which were hidden by the mass of white blossoms, 
gave an air of mystery to the room, whose walls were 
covered with the strange figures of animal-gods and 
with long texts from the Koran in Arabic -writing appliques 
in gorgeous hues on grey canvas. Egyptians use these 
decorative texts for the glorifying of their ceremonial 
tents on festive occasions. 

Jackals with sharp noses seemed to peer out of the 
half-darkness, pointing the direct way across the desert 
to liberated souls on their fearsome journey ; gods in the 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


81 


form of men with apes" heads leered at Vernon as he seated 
himself at the daintily appointed table. His place was 
next to Mrs. Lekejian, who talked to him in English, 
while Girgis spoke in Arabic to her husband. A French- 
man, attached to the French excavation camp at Assouan, 
was speaking French to Nicolas : they were old college 
friends. The major-domo of the dahabeah, who was an 
Italian, always spoke in his own language to the Lekejians, 
for precautionary reasons. 

Vernon was amazed. He had never heard so many 
languages spoken by a small party with such complete 
familiarity before ; it brought home to him his own limi- 
tations, for each time that any one of the party addressed 
him, it had to be in English. His French had just been 
strong enough to allow him to scramble through his army 
exams. Like many of the other things which had been 
crammed into him for that occasion, it had long since 
slipped out, but he looked very well-bred, and he and 
Mrs. Lekejian found plenty to laugh at and talk about. 
He asked her if she was as keen about the old Egyptian 
things as her daughter ; she confessed that she was not. 
‘‘ My garden has been my hobby,"" she said ; “ you can do 
anything here with a garden, you know, if you have plenty 
of water . . . these flowers came from it this morning. 
Stella takes all her intellectual tastes and talents from 
her father — Syrians are so clever. I used to feel very stupid 
amongst them at first : they can learn anything they 
want to."" 

“ You can"t think what a duffer I feel,"" Vernon said ; 

I can only speak one language, and I don"t understand a 
single thing about anything I see out here except the 
size of the buildings."" 

M[rs. Lekejian laughed her girlish, Irish laugh. ‘‘ Stella 
knows enough for both of you, I think, and no one expects 
an English soldier to be intellectual, so don"t feel worried.'" 

“ Your nephew can speak French and Italian, and far 
better English than ever I could speak French."" Vernon 
did not add that in England he had thought a good linguist 
must be either a diplomat or a waiter — both had to learn 
languages for their professions. 

Mrs. Lekejian saw him look at Girgis long and seriously. 
Both her nephew and her husband were wearing their 
6 


82 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


scarlet tarbushes . . . Girgis" gleaming eyes and black head, 
and her husband^s dignified and patriarchal appearance, 
gave a very Oriental touch to the scene. 

‘‘A penny for your thoughts!'' Stella suddenly said 
as she, too, caught Vernon's absorbed expression. 

He started. A guilty flush deepened the delightful 
pink of his fair skin. “ I was thinking," he said in an 
under-tone, ‘‘how remarkably good-looking your cousin 
is, and how serious he is for a chap of his age." 

“He is splendid-looking," Stella said ; “ did you ever 
see such wonderful colourmg ? ‘ Sun-burning ' isn't the 

word for the mixture of brown and brick-red in his cheeks. 
. . . He leads such a healthy life, you know ... in the 
saddle all day long under a desert sun. On his farm they 
have the oldest and the newest of everything . . . electric 
ploughs, if there^are such things, and camel-ploughs made 
of old acacia-wood, working side by side — Girgis is very 
different from the ordinary wealthy Eg3rptian." 

She was anxious to let Vernon see that Girgis was not 
a benighted Copt of early-Christian prejudices, but her 
lover's eyes gave her no returning smile, he was looking 
at her cousin as though he were nothing more human 
or nearly connected to himself and Stella than the 
images of the animal-gods in scarlet and blue and orange 
on the walls behind them. Stella had noticed that Girgis 
during dinner had given her none of his customary polite 
bows ; in his eyes there was a curious expression which she 
had never seen before. But it pleased her to notice how 
admirably her brother and Vernon got on together : they 
seemed to have plenty to talk about, for Nicolas could 
tell him all about the various clubs, though Vernon was 
surprised to find that he did not offer to put him up 
for any one of them. With great tact Mr. Lekejian had 
kept Girgis talking to himself. He had at once felt the 
atmosphere of antagonism with which his nephew regarded 
his future son-in-law, and had taken care that Girgis 
should not express during the meal any anti-English 
sentiments. More than once Stella heard her father 
telling him to be less prejudiced, to talk as he really felt, 
not as he thought he would like to feel ; she could not hear 
aU that passed between them, but she could catch enough 
to know that Girgis, who had been staying with a cousin 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


83 


in Asiut, had brought the latest news of the coming election. 
Mr. Lekejian had a certain amount of sympathy for the 
Copts, who considered themselves slighted by the Govern- 
ment ; he understood their grievances just as he understood 
the feelings of an Irish Nationalist, but wide experience 
had taught him that the English did not treat them un- 
justly, that their inability to hold high posts of authority 
was as much regretted by the English as by themselves. 
Neither the Copts nor the Mohammedans were, in his 
opinion, the least capable of ruling their country for their 
country's good. Self-interest was too deeply engrained 
in their natures to permit of anything like proper justice 
to the fellahin. 

When they left the dining-room the moon was high 
enough in the heavens for Karnak to be illuminated by 
its light, so Stella begged her lover and Nicolas to hurry 
over their Arab coffee, which was made to absolute per- 
fection, and start off. Stella did not ask if Girgis would 
go with them ; she took it for granted that he was returning 
by the last train to Cairo. In a very few minutes they 
were on their way to see the ruins of the mightiest temple 
on earth. In an excited and happy humour they engaged 
three splendid white donkeys, gaily bedizened with tur- 
quoise necklaces of blue beads and magnificent silver 
chains, and three tall Egyptians in clinging white shirts 
with turbaned heads. As they trotted along the road 
to Karnak, which looked as white as snow in the moon- 
light — that country road which is surely one of the 
most picturesque highways in the world ? — ^Vernon's one 
feeling was that he had suddenly been transplanted into 
the book of Genesis. The stately figures they passed were 
so completely biblical, the things they did were so illus- 
trative of the parables in the Old Testament. He saw 
Moses, and Aaron, and all the prophets, and Mary, the 
mother of the prophet Jesus, riding on her gentle-footed 
ass, followed by her amiable spouse. If a pillar of fire had 
suddenly risen up in front of them to show them the way 
to the temple, he would not have been surprised ; indeed, 
if they had met the children of Israel bearing the ark of 
the covenant of God, it would have seemed quite in keeping 
with their surroundings. The bare-footed women who 
glided along, trailing their black garments in the dust 


84 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


behind them, bearing on their shawled heads huge baskets 
filled with household utensils, or crates with eggs and 
live chickens, and even small basins containing boiled 
food, seemed to him like funeral mourners returning from 
a burial. Their blackness was blacker than anything he 
had ever seen before, for even their head-burdens were 
smothered in black. 

The solemnity of the East amazed him ! 

Only the men bore no burdens : their stately turbaned 
heads were carried with the pride of an ancient race 
which has seen centuries come and go, leaving its customs 
and its peoples unchanged ; men whose women have 
been burden- bearers ever since the day when Eve was 
created to bear Adam's son. 

And withal there was peace in the domestic scenes of 
these tillers of the land returning to their homes, desert 
homes which lay nr»t two miles away from the market of 
the city. A peace which mingled with the Eastern still- 
ness increased the feeling of complete severance from 
modernity which had taken possession of Vernon's mind. 
He did not like the leeling, and he kept wondering to him- 
self how English people could live anywhere but in England 
from choice. 

Their donkeys, after the custom of the East, preferred 
to go in Indian file, so conversation was not easy, but he 
heard Stella and Nicolas now and then speaking to the 
natives who passed them. This again bewildered Vernon's 
conservative mind. In London Stella had been, in his 
idea, a beautiful English girl who had little or no connection 
with the East, beyond the fact that her parents lived in 
Cairo. He knew that lots of English people lived in Cairo, 
so the fact had conveyed very little to him ; he had seen 
her mother, who was a charming Irishwoman. In Luxor, 
Stella seemed a totally different being. To hear her 
chatting in Arabic with turbaned Orientals riding on 
hideous brown buffaloes, or with veiled women carrying 
ridiculous burdens on their hidden heads, gave him an 
uneasy feeling which he did not like — ^it distanced her from 
him more completely than his feeling earlier in the day of 
his inability to keep up with her mental adaptability. 

As they approached the avenue of stone rams lying 
like crouching beasts at the foot of dark palms which 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


85 


soared into the white moonlight, they met a stately Arab 
in long black robes ; his head and shoulders were swathed 
in white, his hands folded serenely across his breast. He 
salaamed profoundly without uncrossing his arms. He 
was not a high priest of Amon, but the night-guardian 
of the temple : it was his duty to show strangers round 
it. Nicolas assured him that they did not want a 
guide . . . that they would not attempt to penetrate into 
the heart of the ruins anywhere alone. “Monsieur Le 
Grain him very cross ! To aU places you wish to go I 
will go too, my gen-le-man. I will conduct you, but I 
will not disturb you; I understand very well.*^ 

“ Tayih "" (good), Nicolas said ; “ show us the way : take 
us first to the grand colonnade and afterwards to some very 
high point from which we can see the moon shining on the 
buildings ; but remember we wish silence, not information."^ 

“ Tayib,'* the sheikh repeated politely ; “I know my 
gen-le-man, him no tourist-man. I take you very nice 
place ; moon him very fine to-night. My lady, you trust 
me."" He bowed profoundly to Stella. 

With perfect ease he glided from block to block of the 
fallen stone amongst the thousands that made am earth- 
quake of ancient marbles, while they followed him with 
difiiculty, picking their way across the ruins, and passing 
under pylons as perfect as the gateways of mediaeval 
castles, and down avenues of leering beasts, while above 
their heads there soared obelisks and giant columns. 
Vernon had never imagined such a nightmare of fallen ruins 
or such grotesque imagery as he saw painted on the walls 
and columns ; he felt like a beetle or a rat skulking 
among the ruins of a mightier and grander world. 

Presently the sheikh forgot his promise of silence and 
began telling them the names of the various parts of the 
main temple of Amon-Ra, through which they were passing, 
but Stella silenced him. “ Don"t speak,"" she said to him 
in Arabic ; “no human mind can take in more than a 
meaningless impression of Karnak ... at first sight. Its 
size and wonder is enough for to-night."" 

“ Tayih sitt, I forgot you not tourist peoples, you not 
ask questions."" 


CHAPTER IX 


When at last they found themselves actually in the “ Hall 
of the Columns/" the mightiest of the mighty buildings 
which the great Rameses completed and set his seal upon — 
even Vernon gasped, but not a word was spoken. The sheikh 
took himself off, as silently as a shadow, to a comfortable 
resting-place on the top of a fallen column which measured 
thirty-five feet in circumference. As though he had no 
bones in his stately body, he curled himself up like a cat 
and began to smoke ; soon he was fast asleep, or appeared 
to be so. Karnak, with its awfulness and its beauty, was 
nothing to him. If it was two thousand years old, he had 
spent half his nights in it for the last twenty years ; custom 
had killed its age ! Stella sat down between Nicolas and 
Vernon and slipped a hand into an arm of each ; she wanted 
humanity close to her. 

For a little time they were afraid to speak lest their 
words to each other should seem absurd — for what words 
could even dimly express the thunder of emotion which the 
first impression of that hall of unearthly vastness calls up ? 
The very silence which surrounded them was Egyptian 
in its depths. It was a silence suggestive of the distant 
Sahara, a silence expressive of untrodden sands and the 
stillness of uncounted centuries : they could feel its calm 
beyond the debris of the fallen Thebes. It was a stillness 
which was rendered even more still by the sharp barking 
now and then of desert dogs. 

It was Nicolas who spoke first. ‘‘ It’s curious,” he said, 
“ how the Egyptian statues, which look so prim and so 
unreal by day, become so terribly human by moonlight. I 
thought that row of Osirises with folded arms looked 
amazingly human as we passed them, didn’t you ? They 
were like a guard of living giants protecting the temple.” 

Stella shivered. “ I feel as if a thousand things had coma 

86 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


87 


to life again, things with unfriendly eyes that follow us 
from point to point, things we can't see, with eyes we only 
feel” She gave a sigh. “ It's quite comforting to look up 
at the sky and see the friendly stars shining down upon us 
between the columns — there's nothing sinister about them." 

“ I like that obelisk over there," Vernon said ; “ it looks 
as if it was pointing at the moon." 

‘‘ That particular obelisk," Stella said, “ was put up by 
a woman more than two thousand years ago ; she was the 
famous Queen Hatshepset, the Queen Elizabeth of Eg3rptian 
history I was speaking about to-day ; she ordered two 
obelisks to be hewn out of the best granite quarries at 
Assouan and brought down to Thebes and set upon the 
front of the temple of Amon-Ra in seven months' time ; 
their points were covered with silver and gold, so that 
they would shine in the sun and show from a long distance. 
They were an offering to ‘ Father Amon,' so she said, but a 
good part of the honour was to satisfy her most vain and 
ambitious majesty." 

Both Nicolas and Vernon looked for a few moments at 
the soaring obelisk of granite, and then Vernon said : “ How 
like a woman to have them done in that wild hurry ! What 
a job it must have been I Women were evidently just the 
same then as now." 

‘‘ She was a wonder, anyhow," Stella said ; “ you'll hear 
plenty about her at Thebes, won't he, Nicolas ? " 

I'm not half as well up in aU that sort of thing as you 
are, Stella " (he made a point of calling her by the name 
she had borne in England — he hardly knew why — to-night), 
“ but I suppose she was about the most important woman in 
Egyptian history. She was wild about exploration parties : 
Punt was the great place in her days, not the North Pole." 

What about Cleopatra ? " Vernon asked ; wasn't she 
more important ? " 

Oh, no," Stella said laughingly, ‘‘ Cleopatra only came 
in at the tail-end of real Egyptian history ; it was her love 
affairs with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony that made her 
name famous to the world, she is of no account in Egyptian 
history proper." 

‘‘ I didn't know that she had ever met Caesar," said 
Vernon. 

In a few minutes Nicolas rose and left them ; he made 


88 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


it his excuse that he wanted to measure the circumference 
of the largest of the fallen drums. He had not been 
gone more than two minutes before Vernon’s arm was 
slipped round Stella’s waist, and he had taken one of her 
hands in his own. 

Stella sat in exquisite content : the magnetic contact 
of her lover, mingled with the mysteriousness of her sur- 
roundings, rendered her incapable of clear and practical 
thought. The half -lit figures of unknown gods, the clear- 
cut reliefs of warriors and their captives which caught the 
light of the moon on tower-like columns and walls, the 
gaily coloured cartouches of countless Pharaohs, and the 
wide-spread wings of the beetle god Kepher-Ra, met her 
dreaming eyes at every point. In the great hall there was 
scarcely a square foot of masonry, fallen or upstanding, 
which did not illustrate a tale of ancient glory. 

Until to-night she had no idea that there was anything 
existing in the world that approached the ancient glory of 
Solomon’s temple, the temple of the Jews so extoUed in 
the Bible. Now she was sure that this hall of the ancient 
Egyptians had been far greater. * In Egypt alone man 
seemed almost to have approached his Maker in the mag- 
nificence of his conceptions ! 

At intervals in the wonderful silence Vernon pressed 
Stella’s hand a little closer, and she, knowing what he 
meant, leant towards him and raised her lips silently to his. 
Her thoughts were not always of the man at her side, but 
his human presence was comforting, and the very practical 
turn of his imagination helped her. 

‘‘ What are these dogs making that infernal barking 
for ? ” he asked. His thoughts were of the senses, for his 
cigarette was perfect and Stella was delicious. “ This is 
‘ top hole ’ if they’d only stop.” 

“ To protect the farms which lie far out on the Libyan 
desert — they are quite close to the hills. Wolves come at 
night and attack the sheep.” 

‘‘ Do they really ? Is it still as wild as that, with Luxor 
lying so near ? By Jove ! it’s wonderful.” With an 
Englishman’s love of sport, his mind was awakened. 

“It is very wild over there. Nicolas and I rode out to 
see a Coptic monastery — such a weird old place, like a 
collection of bee-hives ! But the dogs terrified me : they 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


89 


were quite as savage as wolves. I thought they would tear 
the donkey-boys to pieces.'" She started, and stopped 
speaking quite nervously, for Girgis Boutros had suddenly 
appeared in front of them. His eyes were fixed on Vernon, 
whose lips were stealing a kiss from Stella's throat. “ Oh, 
Girgis," Stella said, ‘‘how you startled me ! I had no idea 
you were coming to Karnak. How on earth did you know 
where to find us ? " 

“ Your donkey-boy is standing at the outer pylon — he 
told me where you were." 

“ But how did he know ? The pylon is half a mile 
away ! " 

Girgis shrugged his shoulders. “ I do not know : hoio is 
everything known in Egypt ? " 

Stella shivered. “ How indeed ! I always feel that every- 
thing knows — even the buffaloes : they've known every- 
thing since prehistoric times." 

Stella felt ill at ease ; she saw that Vernon resented the 
intrusion of her cousin, and did not mean to make himself 
agreeable. As nothing was said between them, and Girgis 
evidently did not intend to go and leave them to enjoy 
each other's company alone, she rose to her feet. Though 
she made no noise, the sleeping guardian instantly uncurled 
himself from the fiat top of the fallen drum of sandstone, 
and, gliding over the mass of ruins as easily as though he 
was walking on a polished floor, was at her side. 

“ My lady, she like to sit up very high and see all the 
temples of the world under the full moon ? " 

“ Yes," Stella said, “ call my brother and tell him we 
are going." 

“ Yes, my lady . . . your gen-le-man he wait by you, I go 
find your brother very soon ; him looking at lotus obelisk ; 
him very nice gen-le-man," 

Stella thought Girgis might have offered to go with the 
guardian and leave her to enjoy the society of her lover in 
solitude, but he did not . . . there was something about him 
to-night which unconsciously angered her. His silence was 
laden with antagonism, his eyes expressed the same horror 
at her lover's intimacy as they had done earlier in the 
evening ; she felt nervous and oppressed. It was quite a 
relief when Nicolas and the guardian re-appeared ; even 
then, without wishing it, she found herself walking with 


90 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


Girgis some little way behind the others, she was conscious 
of having obeyed his will. 

Suddenly he spoke to her in words which ought to have 
startled her, but they did not — he had in some curious way 
forced his thoughts upon her. “ You will not marry this 
Englishman,"' he said ; “ why do you let him kiss you ? Why 
is he like a husband or a master ? 

Stella stopped. ‘‘ Why do you speak to me like that, 
Girgis ? You have no right to ! I will marry him ; he loves 
me ..." her voice trembled. “ I am engaged to him, that is 
why he may kiss me." 

‘‘ I love you too," he said, “ but I would not insult you 
in that manner. I would give you everything you ask for 
in the world ; you are my star, I will follow you. If you 
marry this man you will be untrue to your own people, 
you will be always unhappy." 

‘‘ Don't — you mustn't speak like that, you are my cousin. 
I am going to marry Vernon — how cruel of you to say such 
things ! " Her words were almost a cry. 

‘‘Yes," he said, “I am your cousin, and I would not 
despise your people . . . for they are my people. I would 
give you all my moneys to help to raise the ignorant — ^you 
can be their saviour ! . . ." 

“ Vernon does not despise them — how dare you say so ? 
If you loved me you would not think it. Oh, Girgis, it's 
so cruel of you to speak of such things when I was so 
happy!" 

“ He already despises me, and I know it, if you please, 
and you also know it ! You are destined, like the Esther of 
old, to save your people ; this man will not let you. If he 
marries you he will separate you from them for ever, and 
do his best to make every one think you are English." 

“You don't know, you don't understand ; if you despise 
him, why shouldn't he despise you ? . . ." 

“ No," he said, interrupting her, “ I hate him " ; and as 
he said the words all the sinister meaning of the unseen 
forms filled the temple with their presence, and all the 
graven images which looked down at them from the high 
places seemed to echo his words . . . “ I hate him, he despises 
your people." 

“You hate him," she said, “ because I love him, 
because he has made me happy ? It is unkind of you." 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 91 

Her fear of his anger made her almost conciliatory in her 
manner of speaking to him ; her fear was for Vernon. 

“ I hate him because he will make you tmhappy, because 
already he treats you ... as his ‘ darling "... he does not 
respect you or he would not do it."" (He used the word 
which Orientals in Cairo use for an Englishman"s mistress.) 

“It is your Oriental mind that makes you think such 
things."" Her anger was rising. “ What is the matter with 
you to-night ? You imagine all sorts of evil things : I will 
not even be your friend if you cannot behave with proper 
respect to me. What has angered you ? "" 

“ I cannot tell you, if you please . . . but it is not I who 
do not treat you with proper respect, for I saw you in his 
arms ! In England does a man marry the young woman 
who allows him to hold her in his arms, the woman whom 
he kisses like a dancing-girl ? Does your brother know 
and permit him to live ? "" 

Stella laughed. Poor Girgis, with his Eastern notions of 
veiled and unseen brides, how it must have shocked him ! 
He had evidently never imagined that engaged couples 
kissed one another — her anger cooled. “ Of course he 
does, you foolish boy ; I am going to marry him ; he is an 
Englishman ... in England lovers are allowed to kiss each 
other — there is no harm in that."" 

“ I am not a boy, if you please, I am a man ; but, as you 
say, I do not understand ! The English are very improper, 
yet they are proud of the position their women hold. I see 
no modesty in Englishwomen if that is what they allow ; 
you should not have been educated there."" 

“ You don"t understand : it is because their minds are 
so modest that they can do these things. I don"t believe any 
Oriental could ever understand how innocent and pure an 
English girl"s mind is, or how respectfully her lover thinks 
of her and kisses her."" 

“ Will you explain it to me, if you please ? "" 

“ I cannot,"" Stella said, “ it is too difficult ; but it is true 
— you must live amongst English people to understand it."" 

“ It is, you say, because an Englishman"s mind is so pure 
thctt he may kiss and hold in his arms a virgin ... if it 
is so pure why does he wish to kiss her, why does he wish 
to hold her in his arms, why is he not content to behave 
to her as a brother or father behaves ? "" 


92 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


“ I can't explain, for you contort things so oddly, you 
see things from such an Eastern point of view. It is 
more like this." She thought for a moment. “ A man 
who wishes only to drink a little wine may safely do it, 
but the man who wishes to drink wine to get drunk must 
not drink wine at all. Now do you understand ? " 

‘‘You think an Oriental only wishes to kiss a woman 
because his thoughts are sensual and carry him further ? " 

“ Yes," Stella said, interrupting him, “ he does not kiss 
her because he loves her as an Englishman loves her." 

“ I have never been in England, but I have seen the 
behaviour of many Englishmen in Cairo. I think they 
have not the same customs as Orientals, but when they 
are in Egypt they have the same minds . . . perhaps in 
their own country they are different ... I do not know." 

By climbing up a mound of debris which had accumu- 
lated against its side walls, they had reached the top of 
a high pylon or temple gateway. Stella gave a little cry 
of relief and delight. The wonderful scene which had 
suddenly imfolded itself to them was bathed in the white 
light of the full moon. The pylons of the many temples 
which surrounded the great mother-building stood up 
bold and free ; the avenues of crouching rams and lions 
looked mysterious and sinister ; the mud villages of 
the desert, under the gentle moon, lay desolate and 
Pharaonic. In the far distance the food-giving Nile lay 
serene and pale like a ribbon of silver stretching across the 
irrigated land. 

The whole world was serene and silent. But for the 
deep shadow thrown by the high courts at their feet, 
and the blackness of the ' palm trees against the clear sky, 
the hour might have been midday in an English winter, 
for there was light with a total absence of sun. 

They found seats, and their talk drifted to the view 
before them and of the suitability of the houses and 
customs of the natives to the ancient buildings which 
surrounded them. These houses added rather than 
detracted from the general picturesqueness. “ It is the 
Koran again we have to thank for that," Nicolas said, 
“ for it forbids all changes : everything ought to remain as 
it was in the Prophet's time with the true believers, which 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 93 

means that Eastern customs and Eastern dress are to-day 
as they were six hundred years after Christ/" 

“ What a jolly good thing they became Mohammedans ! 
Vernon said. “ They look ripping ; it"s like living in the 
Bible . . . that big temple might be the temple of Solomon 
and that old Arab guide one of the high priests."" 

That is the selfish view the English take of this country,"" 
Girgis said ; “ they do not care for the progress of the 
people, they onl}^ wish the country to remain picturesque 
for them to visit. It is good for the foreign hotel-keepers."" 

‘‘ Perhaps it is rather a selfish view,"" Vernon said good- 
naturedly, “ but the people seem quite happy, and per- 
fectly content — I don"t see why they need change, do you, 
Stella ? Progress, as you call it, doesn"t seem to do them 
much good, judging from the specimens we get in trade."" 

Girgis did not let Stella speak. “ They are to stand 
still, and be treated like picturesque children for the 
English to govern and photograph . . . but I have read 
of nothing that can stand still, if you please. Everything 
must go back or go forward : if it were not for the Koran 
Egypt would go forward ... it will go forward without 
the Koran. . . ."" He spoke meaningly. “ That is why 
you English like the Koran, why the English sympathize 
with the Mohammedans and ignore the Christians : the 
advancement of the Christians would mean the advance- 
ment of Egypt, but the English do not advance them, 
they suppress them and give their assistance to the Moham- 
medan who can never rule his own country, for he cannot 
progress ; but now all countries must progress ... it is 
the age of progress."" 

“ Oh, Girgis,"" Stella said, “ you are so rabid on this 
subject, I will not allow politics to be talked to-night."" 
She spoke laughingly, but she was in earnest, and Girgis 
knew it. 

“ Yet only at dinner-time you said, ‘ Talk politics to 
me — ^in England women are interested in the affairs of their 
country." You will excuse me, if you please ; I did not 
know you were not speaking the truth ; I have much of 
your customs yet to learn."" 

He looked so politely apologetic that Nicolas said, “ It"s 
all right, old chap, only you must remember that Mr. Thorpe 
looks at things from an English point of view ; he has not 


94 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 

got hold of all the fine points of our complicated scheme 
of politics/" 

He turned to Vernon and tried to make excuse for his 
cousin"s outburst. “ You know Girgis is not an idle 
theorist, he is doing all he can for the progress of his 
country-people. His farm is quite a model, and he"s making 
it pay, too — what"s more. At first the people were amazed 
at any sort of innovation in their ancient customs, but 
they got over it, and now they look upon him as a sort 
of god. Besides improving the land, and the agricultural 
methods of the fellahin, he pays himself for Christian 
teachers to instruct the Coptic children in the village 
schools on his estates in Upper Egypt."" 

“ Does not the Government pay for them ? "" 

“ Only when there are a sufficient number of Christian 
scholars at the school ; but the Christian population of the 
district is allowed to supply a teacher for the school if 
it wishes to. Girgis is one of the few wealthy Copts who 
sees that it is done in his district by putting his hand in 
his pocket."" 

“ The Christians pay the same taxes as the Mohammedans, 
but they don"t have the teachers,"" Girgis said. “ I only 
do a little. ... I am not married, I am rich, if you please ; 
it is very simple for me."" 

‘‘ Do be fair, Girgis,"" Stella said : ‘‘ these very schools 
were originally endowed as Koran schools . . . schools 
where nothing but the Koran was taught. Many of them 
were endowed by Mohammedans for that purpose. Now 
that the Government insists on other subjects being 
taught ... it would be unfair to have a Copt master 
for the very small percentage of Christian scholars who 
attend them. The Christian children get taught all the 
other subjects, but the Government does not supply the 
religious teaching — isn’t that nearly it, Nicolas ? "" she 
asked. 

“ Yes,"" Nicolas said, “ pretty nearly."" 

“It is not the Christian religion itself that I so much 
think about,"" Girgis said, “ for I am not religious ; it is 
the fact that for the progress of the country a progressive 
form of religion amongst the governing peoples is neces- 
sary . . . the Koran is retrogressive ; our boys must not 
grow to be men without any religion, they are too savage 


A WIPE OUT OF EGYPT 95 

for that, and so if they go to their schools they will have 
the Koran or nothing — that is all, if you please/' 

“ It is very interesting," Vernon said, ‘‘ but up till now 
I never knew that there were any native Christians in 
Egypt ; I never thought about them, anyhow . . . but it 
seems to me that they have some cause for complaint . . . 
what do you think ? " He turned to Nicolas. . . . “ They 
are rather like our Methodists in their religious discontent." 

“ The whole thing is very complex," Nicolas said ; “ the 
English have a difficult time of it, and I think the Copts 
should have more patience : they certainly possess the 
brains of the country, as they always did, but it will take 
them many generations before they can rise above the 
position of servitude and degradation they have held ; you 
can't imbibe the special qualities necessary for command, 
and the power to enforce obedience and respect, as quickly 
as you can amass facts. . . . The Copts have always used 
their brains for facts : they are quick to learn new methods, 
new customs, but for centuries they have been shut off 
from all positions of dignity and authority, so they have 
lost the governing instinct.'^ 

“ Are all Copts anti-English ? " Vernon asked. 

“ Certainly not," Nicolas said — “ the very opposite : 
the Christian papers are all for the English. Girgis is not 
anti-English really, though you might think so ; he knows 
wffiat England has done for the country ... he knows 
that not so long ago the Mohammedaris in Egypt were 
proud to call themselves Arabs in Egypt and not Egyptians, 
now they call themselves Egyptians because they wish 
Egypt for the Moslems ! But they need not feel injured, 
for you have to go back to Heaven knows when to find 
the epoch in Egyptian history when Egypt was ruled by 
Egyptians. Egypt has always been ruled by invaders — 
Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Bagdad-Circassians, and 
finally the English." 

“ Would the Copts rather have Moslem rule again ? " 
“ Oh no ! " said Girgis quickly, ‘‘ we only want justice 
from the English." 

“ Even the Nationalist movement was an^i-Turkish 
once," Nicolas said. “ The Pan-Islam feeling was evolved 
out of it ; the uneducated people can only understand the 
Pan-Islam feeling now. It was a party cry ; they were 


96 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


caught by it, for they could understand the old teaching 
that it is degrading for a Moslem to be ruled by a Chris- 
tian ; the educated Nationalists knew how to appeal to 
them/' 

Vernon lit a cigarette. ‘‘ It seems to me that people 
take their religion out here much more seriously than we 
do at home." 

“ Yet the Egyptian Mohammedan is not a strict one," 
Nicolas said ; “ heis nothing like the Tunisian, for instance ; 
he's awfully slack really, and not at all fanatical by nature ; 
and, to prove to you that they appreciate the English 
codes of justice and honour, it is a well-known fact that 
the warmest advocate for Egyptian rights pleads for a 
British rather than an Egyptian representative for the 
administration of water in his own province, and one high 
official, who pleaded for ‘ more Egyptians ' in the Govern- 
ment service, almost in the same breath begged to have 
his own case tried by British judges." 

“ Then I give it up," Vernon said. 

“ The Christians only want fair treatment," Girgis 
repeated ; “ they wish to share equally with the Moslems 
the positions which the Government gives to the natives, 
and to see their country allowed to progress." 

“ But, Girgis, father says that there are even more 
Government posts held by Copts than by Moslems." 

That is true," Girgis said, “ but even your father 
cannot be just in what he teUs you on that subject, for 
he is too loyal to the English : they are the poorly paid, 
humbler posts, posts which carry no pensions, the posts 
which the Moslems have not the intelligence to fill." 

“ Then it is a, case of £ s. d. after all, rather than religion," 
Vernon said laughingly, “ it generally is — human nature 
is the same all the world over." 

“ Of course that is the chief point," Girgis said — ‘‘ is 
it not natural ? — but they also wish that under Christian 
rule the Christians in Egypt generally should be treated 
better socially ; it would raise them in the eyes of the 
Mohammedans, it would restore to them their self-respect." 

Stella felt her cheeks grow warm with the blood which 
mounted to her very hair, her pulses quickened. What 
would Girgis say next ? 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


97 


“ How are they treated ? "" Vernon asked. 

“ As outcasts/" Girgis said ... he turned his onyx 
eyes on Stella, he saw her lips tremble and the blood 
leave her face as quickly as it had come into it. 

All Christians, do you mean — the rich as well as the 
poor ? "" 

Girgis did not speak. Vernon looked towards Nicolas 
for an answer. 

It was Stella who spoke. ‘‘ Nearly all,"" she said very 
quietly. “ I think sometimes the English class even the 
French in with the 'natives," they are so stiff-necked 
upon the subject. Perhaps it"s because the French, being 
more intellectual than the English, sometimes enjoy the 
society of the cultivated natives, who can teach them 
many beautiful things, and the English will not receive 
any one, you know, who mixes with the natives socially."" 

" Ah ! there you have it,"" Vernon said ; " it is because 
they are natives, not because they are Christians ; the 
English never mix with the natives of the country they 
rule — they mustn"t."" He stopped, for, like a flash of light- 
ning, the fact faced him that Stella was what the English 
would call a native ! . . . For a moment his blood ran 
cold and he felt as though he were paralysed : why had he 
never thought of it before ? What a fool he was — for Girgis, 
her full cousin, looked as Egyptian as any of the reliefs 
cut on the monster columns of the temple which lay bathed 
in the moonlight before them ! Tongue-tied, Vernon 
gazed at him as he stood on the top of the high pylon, 
his exquisite profile and perfect flgure silhouetted against 
the background of the clear night sky ; he was like the 
figure of the youthful king whom the guardian of the 
temple had pointed out to them as having slain, and 
strung up, hundreds of Syrians in his victory over them ; 
he had to admit that he was beautiful. His thoughts ran 
quickly over his short acquaintance with Stella, and his 
first meeting with her. She had been his sister"s devoted 
school-friend — was it possible that she had known at that 
time of the gulf that lay between her people and his ? 
He was sure she had not; he was convinced that she 
thought of herself always as an Englishwoman, that her 
mother"s Irish blood was so much stronger in her veins 
than her father"s Syrian that all that was Eastern in her 
7 


98 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


nature had been wiped out by her upbringing in England. 
Then he remembered what she had said to him only a few 
hours ago, that so much had happened since they had met, 
that so much had changed in her life, that she had almost 
expected him to be changed too. Poor SteUa ! his heart 
was suddenly full of pity for her ; his strong hand sought 
hers, for Nicolas and Girgis had turned their backs to the 
lovers. 

In silence Stella let her hand rest in his ; she wanted 
his arms round her and his whispered assurance that, 
native or no native in the eyes of the English, she was 
SteUa Adair to him, and that his love for her was imchanged ; 
but she had to remain contented with his sympathetic 
pressure of her hand. . She did not know that he had 
suddenly realized aU that she dreaded his knowing ; she 
was unaware how much of the true meaning of her words 
he had grasped — ^words which some power stronger than 
herself had spoken. Then a tumult of revolt attacked her : 
she was ashamed of her own shame that here in Egypt 
she was not SteUa Adair but Hadassah Lekejian, the 
beloved daughter of Nicolas Lekejian, the Syrian. Why 
was she ashamed of her father's ancient race ? Why 
was she ashamed of her own father, from whom she had 
inherited any of the talents and inteUectual qualities she 
possessed, talents which had placed her at the head of Miss 
MacNaughtan's school ? Why was she ashamed of being 
Hadassah Lekejian ? Was it just because her lover belonged 
to the race of prejudiced rulers who despised the East, 
this virUe, wninteUectual lover of hers, whose mind rarely 
travelled on the same plane as her own, but whose fine 
manhood had stirred and aroused new senses in her being. 
She despised herself for feeling as she did — that now that 
she was in Eg3rpt, she was her lover's social inferior. And 
yet was she his inferior except in the eyes of prejudice ? 
If only she could wake up in the morning and find herself 
SteUa Adair once more, the SteUa Adair of two years ago, 
the chUdish SteUa who had been taught by her school - 
friends to look upon herself as some one above the ordinary, 
some one who would be bestovdng almost a royal favour 
on the man whom she condescended to marry ! 

And yet in her conscience she could not say that her 
present inequaUty m the eyes of the English was all 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


99 


prejudice, for before her there rose up a picture of Girgis^s 
mother's friends and relations . . . these dreadful over- 
fed, over-dressed Levantines. . . . How could Vernon mix 
with them ? . . . what would he say to them ? His Saxon 
fairness and Saxon reserve would make him look almost 
as much out of place beside their flamboyant types as a 
white woman would look in a room full of black men. 
Her mind revolted at the idea of his fairness coming in 
contact with women whose skins were oily and whose hair 
was heavy with Egjrptian darkness. If only they were 
not so fat, if only they were not so highly scented and 
richly dressed ! She thought of her own slender height, 
her slender hands and feet : would she, too, one day look 
Levantine ? Would her girlish wrists become fat ? would 
her arms fill her sleeves almost to bursting ? would her 
firm flesh shake when she walked ? Would her mouth 
look greedy ? Then suddenly she was comforted by the 
memory of her mother, whose Irish elegance of figure was 
still girlishly perfect ; then she saw her father rise up 
before her — in her mind's eye he was not elegant like 
Nicolas her brother, but there was not one ounce of spare 
flesh on his bones, and his dignity of bearing gave dis- 
tinction to his whole being. And her aunt, Girgis's mother, 
although she was quite Eastern in her soft beauty, was 
no fatter than the majority of elegantly dressed French- 
women who wintered in Cairo. 

All those visions passed like a mirage before Stella's 
brain, they lasted no longer than a few seconds, and all 
the time Vernon had held her hand lovingly in his. But 
a cloud had fallen upon their night of clear shining, and 
Nicolas felt that it was time to suggest getting back to 
Luxor. He captured Girgis, and left Stella to come as 
slowly as she liked with Vernon — so long as they kept the 
white turban of the Arab in sight they might walk as slowly 
as they pleased. When they were alone Vernon was dearer 
and gentler than Stella had ever known him ; his boyish 
simplicity touched her, and his genuine delight, when she 
suggested a long donkey-ride the next morning to Thebes 
or to the ‘‘ Tombs of the Kangs," made her laugh, for he 
did not conceal from her that what thrilled him in the 
idea had nothing whatever to do with the wonders of 
ancient Egypt, but with the actual canter by her side on 


100 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


swift-footed donkeys across that plain of Arcady which 
lies between Thebes and the Nile. Vernon had so success- 
fully hidden the horrible shock he had received at his 
sudden realization of her true position in Cairo that 
Stella imagined that he had not grasped the importance 
of her words. 

“ You won't let Girgis come, dear, will you ? " Vernon 
said. “ Do let us be quite alone for our first whole day 
together ! " 

“ No, he shan’t come — I'll tell Nicolas not to let him." 
She laughed nervously. ‘‘ Isn't he funny the way he 
comes ? " 

He doesn't come, he just drops down in front of us. 
I never saw such a chap — he's uncanny." 

“ He is odd," Stella said, “ but try not to dislike him, 
dear, he is so much nicer than most of the young men 
of his race." 

For the moment Stella spoke as she felt, like an English- 
woman ; she thought of her cousin as an Oriental. “ He 
thinks a lot, and has great ideas according to his own 
lights, and they are ‘lights,' you know: most young 
Egyptians have none." 

“ He hates me ; I can feel it." 

“ He's jealous of you." 

“ Of me ? " Vernon looked astonished. “ What's he got 
to be jealous of me for ? I've only just met the chap ! " 

“ He's jealous of you because I love you " — Stella spoke 
very softly, the words came shyly from her lips — “ and he 
imagines he loves me." 

“ Great Scot ! he doesn't imagine you could love him, 
does he — that damned granite monument with glass eyes ? 
Confound his native cheek ! " 

Stella shivered . . . “ Oh ! Vernon, he's my cousin." 

Vernon noticed that she shivered. “ So he is ; I forgot 
. . . Great Scot ! " The last words were spoken slowly ; 
then he lapsed into silence. He could not say he w^as 
sorry ; something hardened in him ! . . . the man had no 
right to be Stella's cousin ! Stella had no right to see 
anything of him if she was sensitive to his attitude. 

Stella stopped and withdrew her hands from his grasp. 
“ He is my cousin, and he is in every way my equal. I am 
very proud of him, although he behaved foolishly to-night.'' 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


101 


Her eyes were fixed on Vernon's as she spoke. “ Can 
you bear it, Vernon ? " she said sadly ; “ will your love for 
me prove stronger than your inherited prejudices of racial 
differences ? " 

Vernon's eyes did not flinch under her earnest gaze, but 
he answered her question by evasion. ‘‘ What do you 
mean, darling — strong enough for what ? I love you, that 
is all I know." 

“ I mean that Girgis Boutros belongs to my father's 
people and that I, who felt like an English girl until nine 
months ago, now know that I belong to my father's people 
too ... in Egypt my Irish descent does not count . . . 
I know by all that has happened in these nine months, by 
the cruelty of neglect and scorn, that I can never betray 
my people, that I must always belong to them." 

‘‘ I wouldn't ask you to forsake them completely." 

“ You might, Vernon, for I wanted to when I first came 
out here, when I learnt something about my position, I 
said to myself, ‘ It is only for a little time ; Vernon will 
take me to England ; I need never see or hear of Copts or 
Levantines or Moslems again ' ; but now I know that that 
could never be ... I could not forsake them ; the man 
who marries me must accept my people : can you, dearest ? " 

She looked so beautiful with her pleading, upturned 
face, lit by the marvellous moonlight, that Vernon, still 
only understanding the half of what her words really meant, 
said : ‘‘ Darling, your people will be my people, and my 
people your people — why let's bother about the subject ? . . . 
I admit that I don't understand Girgis or take much to 
him, but I dare say I shall get to like him. I'm sure he's a 
good sort, if you say so ; besides, I like a fellow who loves 
his job : he's awfully keen about farming, isn't he ? I'd 
rather like to see his estate." Vernon expressed the last 
wish merely to please Stella. 

“ We'll go," Stella said ; ‘‘ it would please father if you 
did — he thinks an awful lot of Girgis. You see, so many 
rich young men of his class care only for horse-racing, 
and gambling, and theatres . . . Girgis loves the land, 
and all that he can make come out of it." 

‘‘ He's awfully handsome," Vernon said ; ‘‘I don't think 
I ever saw a finer figure — he's so strong without being 
coarse ; he looks as if he was cut out of granite/" 


102 


A WIPE OUT OF EGYPT 


‘‘ In many ways he is cut out of granite/' Stella said : 

“ you'd be surprised how hard and callous he is about 
individuals : the sufferings of the poor mean nothing to 
him, although he is doing all this to try and educate them, 
and develop their ideas in agriculture. I think Egyptians 
have always been without pity . . . it's been wanting 
in them ever since the days of the Pharaohs, who looked 
upon the people as so many units in the land for labour. 
When they couldn't work any longer, the sooner they died 
the better." 

“ Then what is all this talk about raising the standard 
of the poor ? " 

“ That's for Egypt, that's for the progress of the 
country ; Girgis is mad on national progress." 

'' I see," Vernon said, “ he's like a good many of our 
millionaires, who can't be induced to help deserving in- 
dividuals, but who will give away thousands of pounds for 
public charities." 

“ It's like and it's dijfferent," Stella said, “ for Girgis 
never advertises his good works, he never cares a rap for 
self-glorification, but he's seized with the desire to restore 
the glory that was Egypt's ... to develop her riches, to 
raise her poor ; and he's quite right about what he says : 
it's the Koran that keeps Mohammedan countries from 
progressing." 

“ Curious chap ! " Vernon said thoughtfully. “ Has he 
any affection — is he all theories ? Does he care about his 
own relations ? " 

‘‘I don't know," Stella said; ‘‘the ordinary Egyptian 
who inherits many of the old characteristics of his race, 
as Girgis does, for he is far more Egyptian than Syrian, 
has affection for his sons but very little for any one else, 
and not much of the Christian quality of pity, though 
pity only came into the world, it seems to me, with the 
teachings of Christ ; but most of Christ's teachings are 
forgotten by the Copts, poor things ! They have sacrificed 
Christ for His Church." 

“ I suppose pity never did exist in the old days, did it ? " 

“ Is there any in the Old Testament ? " Stella said. 
“ Isn't it full of brutality, sensuality, and avarice ? There is 
scarcely one example of pity recorded in it ; Christ's pity 
comes in Jike a beautiful and tender song from heaven. 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


103 


When you think of what the East was when He began 
His mission, how extraordinary He must have seemed ! — 
quite what we would consider a fanatic ; but I'm sure 1 
should have loved Him, for I believe I'm rather socialistic ; 
at least, I have been lately." 

Vernon looked at her to see if she was in earnest. You 
are funny," he said ; “ I never met such a rum girl, you 
think about such odd things." 

‘‘ Why ? " she said. Because I love Christ's person- 
ality ? " 

“ No," he said, ‘‘ but the way you look at things." 

“ Then don't let me," she said eagerly, “ for I want to 
be just ordinary, not extraordinary." 

“ Why so ? " 

‘‘ Because I want to be quite like an English girl for your 
sake. I fiould never forsake my people, but all the eame, 
I want to be like the English girl I feel myself to be, that 
I thought I was before I came out here." 

Vernon laughed heartily. ‘‘You are cutting," he said ; 
“ to be quite English you think you must be very ordinary 
and entirely wanting in originality — is that it ? " 

Stella pinched his arm lightly by way of an answer. “ Here 
we are : there's poor Nicolas holding his soul in patience, 
and Girgis contemplating Egypt." She sighed. “ I think 
every one should have a lover to-night, don't you ? That 
moon's quite wasted on those two." 

He stooped and took his last kiss from her youthful 
lips before her donkey-boy brought “ Lord Roberts " for 
her to mount. 

Half an hour later, when they stepped on board the 
Isis, Mrs. Lekejian handed Vernon a telegram : it was his 
recall to Cairo. His senior officer was ill, and he was wanted 
to fill his place, so the morning ride to Thebes on the 
swift-footed “ Horace," with Stella at his side on “ Lord 
Roberts," was postponed until his return. Alas ! how 
little did either of them think that it was never to happen 
at all. 

When Stella said good-bye to him in the morning, Vernon 
saw that her sadness meant more than the mere parting 
with him for perhaps only a few days. At last he 


104 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


said, “ Dearest, if you are going to be a soldier's wife, 
you must learn to bear partings better than this — I might 
never be going to see you again." 

‘‘ You may never want to see me again : you will be mixing 
in Cairo society, you will see for yourself the way we are 
looked down upon ; you'll find every one's the same, you'll 
never stand out against it." Tears filled Stella's eyes and 
her voice betrayed the depth of her emotion. “ I did so 
want to have just one week of you all to myself before you 
heard us discussed in Cairo." 

Dearest," he said, ‘‘ you're'exaggerating things. Don't 
be so foolish : I think you should trust me." 


CHAPTER X 


Dubing Vernon's absence in Cairo, which eventually 
extended itself to twelve days, events happened which 
were to affect Stella's future in a way which she little 
dreamt of at the time, for in that twelve days Fate took 
into her head the marshalling of affairs in a way which 
gave the girl no indication of their importance. Indeed 
she congratulated herself that it was a period of intellectual 
and physical health-giving. 

She had made up her mind to see as much as she possibly 
could of Thebes, its historical sites and monuments, before 
her lover's return, so as not to bore him with hard sight- 
seeing, and by so doing her mind would be too fully 
occupied to allow her thoughts to dwell upon the mysteries 
of ‘‘ Cairene society " which her lover would be having 
unfolded to him. Enjoyments that are the least expected 
are always the most delightful, and that particular twelve 
da3^s happened to be among the happiest in her life, for 
in her sight-seeing, which naturally embraced many long 
donkey-rides, she had the companionship of the tall 
stranger whom she had met in the temple of Luxor, the 
man whose sympathy she had read when their eyes met 
at the supper party in the Arab restaurant. 

His name was Michael Ireton, and, with no little ingenuity 
for a man of his direct and straightforward nature, he had 
contrived to get into conversation with Nicolas Lekejian 
in the smoking-room of the Winter Palace Hotel. During 
the course of their conversation Nicolas had discovered, as 
Michael Ireton had intended that he should do, that by 
introductions he had presented on his arrival in Cairo he 
knew many of the best families in the English society there. 
He also discovered that he was no mean Egyptologist, which 
placed him at once above the ordinary tourist, and made 
him a desirable companion in a place like Luxor. The 

106 


106 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


very morning after their meeting, Michael Ireton had learnt, 
with the help of his donkey-boy, that Stella was going over 
to visit the great Valley of the Tombs of the Kings. A 
sudden determination to go with her devastated him ; he 
could scarcely remember a single occasion in the course 
of his whole life when he had wanted to do anything so 
much. To ride through that hidden valley which he knew 
lay across the river under the pink sunlight, that valley 
lined with the secret mortuaries of the eternal Pharaohs, 
with that girl by his side, was worth striving to do. He 
was convinced that his meeting with her at last in the 
temple of Luxor was the result, and nothing else, of his fixed 
determination not to let her pass out of his life ; his will 
had triumphed — he had found her and spoken to her, which 
meant that he was now in a position to see more of her. 
He had been given his chance ; it now remained with him 
to see what he would make of it. Vernon's presence with 
her in the temple had worried him once or twice. What 
was the explanation of it? — for had not his friend in the 
opera-house told him that neither she nor her people mixed 
in English society in Egypt ? 

He never dreamt for one moment that Stella was engaged 
to the man, for the simple reason that Vernon's evident lack 
of interest in the things which she had seemed so keen about 
gave him the impression that they had not much in common, 
although they seemed to be on intimate terms of friendship. 

A good donkey-boy must be a good scout ! He must do 
all that he can to make his master enjoy himself, and, 
intrigue being the breath of life to him, it pleased the hand- 
some Yussef to bring his master all the information he 
could about the beautiful young lady on board the Isis. 
At all events, he scouted so well that his master was on 
the ferry-boat which conveyed Stella and Nicolas and 
their favourite donkeys across the Nile on their journey 
to Thebes, and he managed to look so perfectly innocent 
of the fact that he had waited for a good half-hour for their 
arrival that Nicolas proved quite willing to let him, at his 
diffident request, join in their day's excursion. In this wise 
he managed to spend almost the whole day by Stella's 
side. And if she found him such an interesting companion 
that she almost forgot to miss Vernon, was it to be wondered 
at ? For she soon found out that he had taken up, for the 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


107 


last two or three years, Egyptology as his hobby, and, 
although he had never set foot in Egypt before, he seemed 
curiously familiar with all the objects of interest they were 
going to see. He was boyishly delighted at the prospect 
of visiting one of the great professors of Egyptian archae- 
ology in his camp of excavation at Abydos in a week's time. 

Mchael Ireton was a man whose age and station in life 
it Avas hard to guess, for with his rugged cast of features 
and big physique he must have appeared many years older 
than he was, when he was a boy, and now, as a man who 
had retained a great deal of the freshness of youth and the 
charm of its simplicity, he probably looked much younger 
than he was. Stella thought of him as somewhere about 
thirty -three ; Nicolas put him down at forty, which was not 
so correct as Stella's guess. His very broad shoulders and 
strikingly powerful physique, added to six feet two inches 
of height, made him seem splendidly big even in a land 
of tall men whose height looks greater by the effect of 
their flowing garments. His profession as mining engineer 
had placed him since his earliest years of independence in 
positions of great authority ; in some of his expeditions 
through Mexico and Brazil he had had as many as a 
thousand natives under his command, and had controlled 
vast sums of money. There was, in fact, nothing little 
about Michael Ireton, for little things had not come into 
his life : his methods of dealing with difficulties, or of 
arriving at desired ends, were almost primitive in their 
directness. 

Any other girl but Stella might have found him a man 
with whom it was difficult to get into sympathetic touch, 
and perhaps too serious, but intellectually his brain was 
a mine of humour. His rough sketches were perhaps as 
illustrative of his real nature as anything else, for some of 
them were full of the tenderest effects of light and shade : 
the indescribable light of Egypt seemed to have floated on 
to his paper rather than have been put there by human 
hand with paint and water, while his character sketches 
of the natives, which he dashed off with lightning speed, 
sent Nicolas and Stella into screams of laughter. They 
were life-like in their types and gestures, and showed an 
instinctive conception of their natures. 

Their talk had been of many things, while they were 


108 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


still on the green plain which is every year watered by the 
inundations of the Nile ; but when at last they passed into 
“ The Great Valley/" and had left all traces of human 
habitation behind them, they instinctively lapsed into 
silence. As they rode on and on, into a deeper and 
deeper sense of its unearthly desolation, they felt lost to 
all other consciousness. Their knowledge that the great 
dead of Egypt "s Great Day lay in vast tombs, as grand 
as temples, under the pink rocks which rolled on and 
ever silently on, at either side of their winding road, was 
forgotten ; it seemed rather as if they had discovered for 
themselves a valley of glorious light, a valley forgotten to 
the world since the day when the finger of God had first 
produced Cosmos out of chaos. 

Very soon Stella was to herself a mere particle of that 
opal light, her material body had no consciousness, and 
Michael Ireton"s presence by her side did not disturb the 
illusion, for, curiously enough, he seemed to be in complete 
sympathy with her feelings, his silence was full of spiritual 
understanding. 

Later on in the day, when they were eating their lunch 
in less intense atmospheric surroundings, on a picnic spot 
Yussef had cleverly discovered for them, where the shadow 
of a mighty rock in a dry land was gracious, their con- 
versation flowed again more freely. Nicolas had suggested 
that they should visit one of the most famous tombs in the 
valley, one of “ the monuments "" which all tourists go to 
see, but Stella begged him not to. 

I only want the valley and the light to-day — they "re 
quite sufficient ; let"s leave the tombs until another day."" 

She turned to Michael Ireton. “ You of course must do 
just as you like ; perhaps you can"t spare the time for such 
abstract things as ‘ light." Would you prefer to leave us 
after lunch and go your own way ? "" 

“ I would much rather not,"" he said simply, ‘‘ that is 
to say, if I may stay ? I quite agree with you : I don"t feel 
inclined to leave this light for all the wonders of the under- 
world."" 

“ I"m glad you feel like that,"" Stella said contentedly ; 
“ it"s so nice doing things like this with kindred spirits."" 

Michael Ireton felt happiness run through him at her 
words like a quickening fire. “ Kindred spirits^are few and 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


109 


far between/" he said. “ One would have to be very 
careful whom one chose to bring into this valley. How an 
ordinary tourist would jar ! "" 

‘‘ And yet we are ordinary tourists, we "re ‘ doing " the 
Valley of the Tombs of the Kngs for the first time."" 

‘‘ Tourists we may be, but not ‘ ordinary " ; I bar that."" 

Stella laughed. ‘‘ Every tourist prides himself on that 
point, I suppose."" 

“ The ordinary English tourist hasn"t the slightest idea 
what this valley meant to the Egyptians,"" Nicolas said ; 
“we do differ from them in that respect, anyhow. The 
ordinary English tourist doesn"t even want to know ; he 
looks upon the whole thing as an excursion."" 

“ I do think that if the ordinary American tourist is the 
most vulgar in the world, the ordinary English tourist is 
the most ignorant. I"m awfully ashamed of my race some- 
times, aren"t you ? "" Michael Ireton addressed Stella. 

“ Ignorance is one of the sins even the English cannot 
accuse my race of,"" she said. “ I often think it"s our 
want of ignorance that so annoys them,"" her words dropped 
acidly from her lips. 

Michael Ireton looked at her with a well-disguised 
ignorance of her nationality in his expression, yet Stella 
felt that he knew she was not English, and that for some 
reason of his own he was making her speak of her nationality. 
Nicolas had not told him their name. “ Do you mean that 
you are not English ? "" he said. 

“ No, I am Syrian ; my name is Lekejian."" She said the 
words a little aggressively, as much as to say, “ There now !"" 

“ Do you live in Syria? I want to go there so much, to 
Baalbek and Palmyra : they must be wonderful."" 

“ I have never even visited my own country. I was 
educated entirely in Europe : I"m almost as much of a 
' tourist," "" she smiled at the word, “ as you are in Luxor, 
although my father"s family have lived in Cairo for many 
generations. I know shocMngly little about Syria."" 

“ You ought to be very proud of the influence your race 
had upon the civilization of Egypt — wasn"t it Thothmes I. 
who first broke the power of Syria ? After each con- 
quest, with the bringing back of Syrian prisoners into 
we can trace fresh influences of the more refined 
Syrian arts of their higher civilization. Syria, of course, 


110 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


was equally affected by Egyptian influence, for Thothmes 
III., when he had completely subdued the country, brought 
back Syrian princes to be educated in Eg5rpt ; he made a 
stipulation, however, that when their fathers died they 
might return to their country to fill their places. They 
probably married Egyptian princesses, as they often lived 
in Egypt until after middle age.'" 

‘‘ At that rate most probably," Nicolas said laughingly, 
“ Egyptian kings married Syrian princesses as well." 

“ Of course they did." He turned to Stella : “ Wasn't 
the mother of your favourite King Akhnaton, or ‘ The 
Living Truth ' as he called himself, a Syrian ? " 

Yes, I'm always proud of that, for history attributes a 
great deal to her influence over her son ; it was she who 
first inoculated him with his very modern views on re- 
ligion . . . how beautiful his beliefs were ! " 

“ I was glad to discover a day or two ago that the 
only one of all the ancient deities that Akhnaton ever had 
carved on any of his monuments throughout the country, 
after his conversion, was the image of Truth, and even then 
‘ Maat ' is only represented as a tiny figure held in his 
hand, which showed that it betokened merely the abstract 
idea of truth." 

From this allusion to her favourite king Stella led him 
on to tell her more about the influence of Syria over 
Egyptian art and Egyptian customs ; he pointed out to her 
that before the Syrian conquest the Egyptians had been 
contented to depict mere incidents in their carving, after 
the Syrian influence emotion appeared. ‘‘ The beautiful 
movements of the dancing-girls, their exquisite lightness of 
gesture, their abandonment of pose, all come in with the 
more imaginative Syrian[art — and what is any art, or indeed 
anything, worth without emotion ? " He looked at her 
for an answer. 

“ I'm beginning to feel quite proud," Stella said, of 
my habitually despised country." 

From the effect of Syrian influence on Egyptian art their 
talk turned to Egyptian architecture. Michael Ireton 
confessed that it did not give him the same pleasure as 
Greek architecture did. ‘‘ Its total lack of grace leaves you 
cold," he said, “ its only emotion comes from its size. Have 
you ever seen the Greek temples in Sicily ? " he asked 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 111 

suddenly, his eye kindling with artistic pleasure at the 
thought of them. 

“ No,^' Stella said, ‘‘ I have never been to Sicily ; I am 

keeping that She stopped suddenly, for what was 

the use of keeping them for Vernon ? 

‘‘ I should like to see you there,'" he said. “ I should 
like to take you to Segesta when the wild flowers are at 
their best. I often used to wonder if the Greeks ever saw 
their temples rising out of an ocean of purple flowers. . . . 
I'm sorry for them if they didn't : with their adoration of 
beauty, they must have missed a great deal." 

“ I should love to go," she said, for flowers give that 
endearing charm to scenery which is entirely missing in 
Egypt ; here the magic ‘ light ' has to make up for the 
flowers . . ." she paused, “ and it does cast its spell over 
you ? " 

“ Rather ! " he said enthusiastically, ‘‘ it only comes 
upon you now and then that you are in a land without 
flowers : before I came to Egypt I never realized that in 
Upper Egypt, at any rate, there is absolutely nothing green 
except what grows with artiflcial irrigation ; there are, now 
that I think of it, a very few ‘ wicked '-looking plants that 
seem to And suction in dry sand, but they're Nature in her 
most unnatural mood." 

“ The dearth of flowers and natural vegetation is awful," 
Stella said, yet I think flowers and maidenhair ferns beside 
Egyptian ruins would seem out of keeping, out of pro- 
portion ; the yellow sand and the blue sky make a more 
characteristic background. In Italy the wild flowers look 
exquisite amongst the ruins, and I adore the ferns that 
always line the little natural spring, which they call a 
Bath of Venus." 

During their conversation Michael Ireton had been con- 
juring his brains how he was going to manage to see Stella 
again the next day. A happy chance soon presented itself, 
for she had lent him her gold pencil-case to write down the 
names of some books he had advised her to read. A little 
to her surprise he closed the pencil up after he had written 
down the names and put it in his pocket ; Stella was mount- 
ing her donkey at the moment, so she could not hold out 
her hand to claim it. As he put it in his pocket he said 
to himself, I'll be careful not to give her a chance of 


112 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


getting it back to-day, which will necessitate my returning 
it to her early to-morrow morning/" 

As they cantered home across the green plain of Arcady 
they discovered many lighter subjects to discuss than 
they had done during their intense hours spent in the 
“ Valley of Death/" Stella helped him to add to his by 
no means small store of Arabic words, and gave him hints 
about their pronunciation. 

When they were saying good-bye he handed his card 
to Nicolas, who expressed a wish that he should accom- 
pany them on some future expeditions if he cared to. 

“ Care to ! "" he said ; “ this has been one of the most 
enjoyable days in my life — it"s been most awfully kind of 
you to let me come with you."" He looked at Stella as he 
spoke. “ Finding that little green heart certainly brought 
me good luck. I attribute it all to that."" 

“ My precious hegdb (amulet),"" she said, putting her 
hand in his as she used the Arabic word for his benefit, as 
she also did when she said good-bye — ‘‘ A ma as-sallamah, 
you have told us so many interesting things."" 

“ It"s not good-bye, I hope,"" he said, ‘‘ only auf wieder- 

sthny 


CHAPTER XI 


The next morning there was to be no excursion, for Nicolas 
was suffering from a little touch of the sun which he had 
contracted the day before, and Stella expressed herself per- 
fectly contented to prowl about Luxor by herself ; her 
father and mother allowed her to do so because in Luxor 
the inhabitants are accustomed to seeing tourists strolling 
about their village, and in Upper Egypt the natives are 
much more respectful to women than in Cairo. So, armed 
with a fly-switch and her sketching materials, Stella had 
Just stepped ashore when she met Michael Ireton coming 
towards their landing-stage. 

His height and aloof individuality struck her more 
forcibly than ever ; a slight blush mounted to her face as he 
strode eagerly forward to meet her — if her thick veil had 
permitted Michael Ireton to see the sudden mounting of 
her colour, how pleased he would have been ! for it is a 
certain consolation to a man who is in love with a woman 
to know that from any cause whatsoever he has the power 
to move her. Absolute indifference calls up no blushes. 

“ I foolishly carried off your gold pencil-case last night,"" 
he said ; “I was just coming to return it to you."" 

‘‘ Thank you,"" Stella said as she held out her hand for it, 
“ I didn"t know you had taken it "" — which was a direct 
untruth, for while she had been dressing in the morning 
she had said to herself, “ We must see him again, for he is 
certain to return my pencil,"" and the thought had made her 
sing more light-heartedly, for he certainly added to life"s 
enjoyment ! And to the girl life for the present, at any 
rate, was very full of enjoyment. Her conversation the 
day before with Michael Ireton had set a thousand in- 
teresting ideas working in her head ; his sketches had given 
her new aspirations ; the few hints she had stolen from his 
style she was going to try and put into execution that very 
8 113 


114 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


morning. Yet the lie came to her lips instantly — forced 
into expression by the very fear that her desire for his 
companionship might have appeared evident by her blush. 

“ Are you going any expedition to-day ? He asked the 
question Avith a request in his voice. 

“ No, not to-day ; Nicolas doesn't feel very well, and I 
thought I would enjoy a quiet prowl about Luxor." 

‘‘ But can you prowl about alone ? " he said. “ Is it 
safe ? " 

“ Oh, I think so ; I will take my donkey-boy to carry my 
things," she pointed to her sketching materials, “ and 
hell keep the beggars off : set a thief to catch a thief in the 
East." 

“ May I be your donkey-boy ? " he said. “ I think I 
could keep off most beggars.'" 

Stella smiled. “ I think you could," she said. “ but it 
would bore you. Aren't you going for an excur^on ? " 

“ Not if I may stay with you," he said, “ and I promise 
you I Avon't be a nuisance — and I can keep silence when I 
have to, I'm accustomed to it." He drew out his sketch- 
book from his pocket : “I want to sketch too," he said. 
“ It will be great fun." 

“ Oh, do," she said, “ and let me watch you ; I can't 
really sketch, I only do little daubs to remind me of the 
things I like best." 

“ So do I," he said ; ‘‘ that's why I want to sketch this 
morning." 

‘‘ Had you fixed on your subject ? " 

“Yes," he said, “ I have ; let's go to the garden of the 
Savoy Hotel — I'm staying there. I want to make a little 
sketch of the white-columned arbour that hangs over the 
river ; it's a mass of bougainvillssas just at present, and it 
looks exquisite against the blue sky, with the yellow sand 
behind." 

“ Oh, but I could never do that ; besides, I should be too 
shy even to try before you — but let's go." 

“ Why should you be shy with me ? " he said. “ I wish 
you wouldn't." His grey -green eyes expressed the genuine- 
ness of his wish so simply that Stella smiled and said : 

“ But if I can't help it ! " 

“ I had hoped you weren't shy with me," he said, “ we 
have so many interests in common ; but it's always the 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


115 


same thing, my wandering life has left its mark. I make 
all women feel ill at ease."" 

“ Oh, I didn"t mean that I felt altogether shy with you, 
but your work is so strong "" (she alluded to the sketches), 
“so unusual that I couldn"t do even my poor best if you 
were watching."" 

“ Then I won"t watch,"" he said, “ but if you like I"ll 
take it for granted that you are only a beginner, and after 
you"ve finished I"ll tell you what I think is wrong. Will 
you allow me to constitute myself your teacher ? "" 

“ Of course I will — how awfully kind of you ! — and I"ll 
try my best not to be nervous."" 

That"s right,"" he said ; “ if you only knew how little 
you need be nervous . . . you would laugh at your folly."" 
He was thinking in his own mind that he had at least gained 
one step, that if he pleased her as a master she might 
develop a desire for future lessons. 

“ Do you mind if I step in here a moment ? "" she said. 
‘‘ I left a necklace of mummy-beads to be re-strung ; I 
bought it here, and the thread broke, they "re . . ."" as she 
spoke they stepped inside a curio shop which was laid out 
like a bazaar with almost every conceivable Egyptian 
form of curio : most of them were obvious copies of famous 
museum pieces, but beautiful copies and genuine works of 
art in their own way. 

The native produced the necklace : it was made of the 
finest and smallest blue mummy-beads Michael had ever 
seen ; how a hole had been driven through the slender little 
tube of turquoise-blue faience he could not imagine. 

Stella took it from the man and slipped it round her 
neck against her white muslin dress : it looked fresh and 
delightful, and Michael Ireton showed his approval of the 
effect produced. 

Before they left the shop they looked round the various 
things for a little time, and Stella could not help admiring 
the delicate way in which Michael handled the tiniest 
objects. His big hands were pleasing both in their form 
and in the texture of their skin, and were expressive of a 
far more artistic temperament than his dominating per- 
sonality suggested. 

It was a little thing, yet it gratified the girl to find that 
nice things about him kept on developing with their quickly 


116 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


growing intimacy. He was at the moment handling a 
terra-cotta head of a figurine ... an exquisite thing and 
singularly pure in type for its period. It might have been 
unearthed in Sicily, or even Greece, for any trace that there 
was in it of Egyptian art. 

“ How adorable ! Stella said when she saw it. Michael 
Ireton was holding it lovingly between the first finger and 
thumb of his left hand while he shaded it from the glaring 
light with his right so as to see its outline more perfectly. 

“ Just look at it,'' he said ; “ isn't her profile beautiful ? " 
He moved his head and shoulders away for the girl to see 
more easily. 

“ And the straight little nose," Stella said, “ and the soft, 
feminine expression. The Greeks knew all there was to 
know about beauty, didn't they ? " 

“ Almost," Michael Ireton said ; “ very little would be 
new to them." 

Stella turned to the curio-dealer. How much is this 
little head ? " The man had watched their expressions 
of admiration and the look of desire to possess the terra- 
cotta in the girl's eloquent eyes ; he said to himself, ‘‘ The 
tall, big man will give it to her whatever price I ask," so 
he put a value on it that was quite absurd. 

Stella laid it down carefully in its box on its bed of 
cotton wool. I will give you " — she mentioned about 
the twentieth part of what he had asked — ‘‘ and not one 
piastre more." 

“ You insult me, madam," he said ; ‘‘ I speak the truth : 
it is an antique, it is Greek, pure Greek." 

“ I know it is an antique, but I also know what broken 
terra-cotta figures of that size are worth ... I have seen 
them many times in the sale-rooms in the museum in 
Cairo. If it were whole it would be worth what you ask." 

“ Not a head like that, madam ; they would not sell 
such a beautiful head as that, it would be in the museum 
itself . . . they would not allow a ‘ tourist ' to buy so rare 
a thing . . . the gentleman he knows very well that it is 
Greek, not Egyptian ; it is beautiful ; you must pay for 
beauty, madam." He looked at her companion. 

Stella repeated her price as she lifted up the head once 
more. . . . “ Will you take it ? " 

The man quietly took the head from her, “ No, madam, 


A WIPE OUT OP EGYPT 


117 


for I would not insult the artist who made it two thousand 
years ago/' As he spoke he laid it back on the cotton wool. 

Very well," Stella said, speaking very rapidly in Arabic, 

‘‘ keep it, but you probably paid the Arab who found it 
about the twentieth part of what I'm offering you for it, 
and I have been a good customer." 

She walked out of the shop with Michael Ire ton at her 
side. The wretch saw we wanted it," she said, ‘‘so up 
went his price ; I hate encouraging that sort of avarice." 

“ Did you want it ? " he said. 

“ Yes, frightfully," she said laughingly, “ I had to do 
all I could to prevent myself from buying it. . . ." 

“ Let me go back and get it, please do." 

“ No, you mustn't ... I couldn't let you ; besides, it wasn't 
the price of it, that really didn't matter ... he thought we 
were ignorant tourists — did you see his change of expression 
when I spoke to him in a torrent of Arabic ? I never let on I 
know Arabic to the ‘ people,' it's a useful card to have up 
your sleeve." 

“ But I do wish you'd let me get it," he said ; “ some 
horrid vulgarian will buy it, and just think how the poor 
thing will hate being touched by ignorant hands." 

She smiled at his distress for the vandalism to the 
beautiful head, but could not answer him, for a hand was 
laid on her arm from behind. She turned quickly round ; 
it was the curio-dealer, who had been hurrying after them. 

“ Madam," he said, “ I could not take your price for it, 
I have only one price ; but will you allow me to give it to 
you ? . . . please accept it." 

He held out the box in which the terra-cotta head was 
carefully packed in white cotton wool ; there was no lid 
on the box, and the little face, so classically proud and yet 
so seductively feminine, looked up at her. 

Stella held out her hand to receive it — ^she could not 
refuse it. “ Thank you very much," she said ; “ I will 
indeed accept it : you are very kind." 

“The pleasure is mine, madam," he made a profound 
salaam, “ for you will return to my shop." 

When the man was out of sight Stella and her com- 
panion behaved like two happy children over their treasure ; 
they looked at it from this and that and from every point 
of view. 


118 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


“ You really found it/" she said, “ it ought to be 
yours . . /" her eyes met his ; “ but I can"t give it up. Let"s 
hurry on to the garden or invent stories about her . . . did 
you ever see anything quite so lovely ? "" She held out the 
box impulsively for him to take another look. 

“ Yes, I have,"" he said, and as he spoke he thought to 
himseK how far more beautiful the living woman was at 
the moment, and he longed to tell her so, but wise caution 
forbade it, so he added : 

“ But I"m most awfully glad you"ve got it."" 

“ The man has given it to us,"" she said, “ because he 
know^s it is business to do so — ^he does not wish to offend 
good customers : mother bought one or two valuable Arab 
things from him when I bought these beads."" 

They had entered the grounds of the Savoy Hotel, and 
he was guiding her to the arbour which he wanted her to 
sit in ... he wanted to see her surrounded by the brilliant 
masses of hanging flowers, he wanted to see her without 
her hat on ! He wondered how he was going to manage it. 

When they reached the spot Stella was in an ecstasy of 
delight ; the sudden greenness and coolness, and the mass 
of brilliant flowers, made it, as she expressed it, “ too good 
to be true."" 

“ It always strikes me as very Roman,"" he said, “ the 
atmosphere of this particular spot — this white-pillared 
pergola-arbour hanging over the water as it does, and the 
luxury of the vegetation covering the steep banks — we 
might be sitting in one of the famous villas on the Bay 
of Naples in classic times : do you see what I feel ? "" 

“Yes, I do, it"s simply glorious ; let"s imagine we"re Ro- 
mans. Listen ! that"s dancing ! do you hear that dull drum 
. . . drumming and that thud . . . thud ? "" They listened. 

“ Some Sudanese is dancing on the deck of a Nile boat."" 

“It"s curiously seductive music,"" he said, “it grows and 
grows on one ; at flrst it means nothing, or it did to me."" 

“ I know,"" Stella said ; “ I often wonder how they con- 
trive to get so much . . ."" she paused, “ so much passion 
into it ; you only hear a dull thud, thudding, and an oc- 
casional tink, tink, tinking, and yet it"s full of Eastern 
passion."" 

“To an extraordinary degree,"" he added ; “ it"s very 
strange."" 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


119 


They had seated themselves in the arbour and were 
preparing to begin their painting. Michael had taken care 
to place himself where he could get a perfect view of Stella, 
whose background he had, unlmowingly to her, selected. 
Suddenly to his astonishment she said, ‘‘ I think I will 
take off my hat ; the breeze here will keep away the flies, 
and it's such a treat to be in the fresh air without one's 
hat." She laid her white topee on the seat beside her and 
passed her fingers through her hair to raise it. 

Then for almost an hour they worked diligently. Stella 
had selected the point of the arbour that was most distant 
from them — it made a beautiful piece of composition ; she 
had asked his advice before commencing upon it, and it 
had met with his approval. During that hour their talk 
was principally about their work and upon the subject of 
art, but occasionally it drifted into more personal topics. 
Yet, oddly enough, there was never the right opportunity 
for Stella to mention Vernon's name, nor was there any 
reason why she should tell him of her engagement. They 
had so many subjects in common of abstract interest to 
engross their sympathies that the more practical facts of 
life did not enter into their conversation. Michael Ireton 
felt that, almost a stranger to her as he was, reckoning 
their intimacy by the number of times they had met, there 
was nothing anyone could tell him about her which would 
add one iota to his real knowledge of her. Her mind was 
like a river of clear crystal to him, a river in which he had 
found all the beautiful things he had been longing to find 
in human companionship since he was a boy. 

When an hour and a haK had passed and Stella at last 
put down her brush with a sigh, Michael closed his sketch- 
book quickly and rose to his feet. “May I look ? " he 
said, coming to her side. 

She handed him her block, and waited for his verdict 
nervously. 

“ I'm not going to flatter you," he said, looking down 
into her quickly-answering gaze, “ because we're going to 
be friends, and your work's too good to spoil by flattery. 
You don't want that, do you ? " 

“ Flattery ? Oh, no ! " she said, “ thank you for 
knowing that I don't." 

“ There's nothing to thank me for," he said, “ It's 


120 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


the truth . . . your work's too good for that sort of 
thing . . . it's far from being ‘ school -girlish,' as you called 
it, and you know it ? " 

“ I don't," Stella said humbly. “ To me it's awful . . . 
it's . . 

It isn't awful," he said quickly ; “ but it's full of 
faults, and you've got some tricks that must be corrected ; 
you can console yourself, however, that they're not the 
faults of the tyro." 

He sat down beside her. ‘‘ Now look here." He spoke 
in the most matter-of-fact way, while he spared her no 
criticisms. With hungry ears SteUa took in every word 
he had to say, and asked him many questions, which 
proved to him that she was no longer afraid of him, or 
in the least shy. 

When he had finished the lesson and had indicated the 
good points in her work, she said, ‘‘ Now may I see yours ? " 

“ I didn't do the pergola after all," he said a little 
nervously. I only did a bit of the river with these 
fishing-boats." He opened his sketch-book and held it 
out for her. There was so little work in the hurried 
sketch, that she looked up at him in surprise. 

“ I was idle, wasn't I ? " he said ; “ but somehow it 
wouldn't come off." As he spoke a leaf of the book, which 
was the one before the leaf he had used for the sketch of 
the boats, fell down, for Stella had pulled the book a little 
farther to her, and it had escaped his thumb. As a perfect 
likeness of herself met her eyes, she gave a little start 
and a cry of surprise ; instantly a vivid blush dyed her 
face, for it was an exquisite likeness, just as she had been 
sitting in the arbour surrounded by the curious magenta 
flowers of the bougainvillaea. But it was the charm which 
he had put into the expression of her eyes and mouth 
which made her feel embarrassed. 

For a moment she looked at it in silence, and suddenly 
she knew that she must tell him of her engagement to 
Vernon. 

Will you forgive me ? " he said. “ I have wanted to 
paint you ever since the first time I saw you at the opera 
in Cairo. An artist is a persistent animal when he has 
an end to achieve." 

Stella blushed again, for she knew that he had known 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


121 


that night that she had heard the cruel words of his com- 
panions in the Arab restaurant ; she suddenly recalled the 
look of sympathy in his eyes. 

He spoke so impersonally, and had so well conveyed to 
the girl that his sketch of her had only been made from 
an artistes standpoint, that she felt greatly relieved, yet 
slightly annoyed. Perhaps to tell him of Vernon was no 
longer necessary. 

“ You were perfectly welcome to do it,'" she said, a 
little coldly, ‘‘ but why didn't you ask me ? It is extremely 
good." 

‘‘ Because you would have been self-conscious . . . and 
that would have destroyed everything. It was your 
expression I wanted to catch, the expression I noticed 
when you were listening to the music that night : you had 
the same expression while you worked." 

Stella looked at it again : a feeling of joy leapt in her 
to know that she was so lovely, for she realized that the 
portrait was exactly like her. The sadness and the 
laughter in her face were there, and all the characteristics 
she knew about herself so painfully well. ‘‘ Mother would 
like so much to see it," she said. ‘‘ Will you show it to 
her ? " 

“ If I may," he said,' ‘‘ I'd be delighted to. Am I 
forgiven ? " He asked the words persuasively. 

“ Yes, quite," she said ; “ and thank you so much for 
my lesson." She had risen to her feet. ‘‘ I must get home 
now ; how the morning has flown ! " 

‘‘ When will the next lesson be ? " he asked boldly. 
“You should try some sunset effects or an early morning 
light." 

“ Perhaps we could manage to-morrow evening. If 
Nicolas is better we were thinking of going to Thebes in 
the morning." 

He did not ask if he might come too, for something 
warned him that if he did the girl would be troubled to 
know how to answer him. The sketch he had made of 
her had suddenly raised up a barrier between them, which 
by diplomacy must be broken down, so he determined to 
gain his permission from Nicolas to go with them to Thebes 
whensoever they went. 

When they arrived at the gangway of the Isis he handed 


122 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


his sketch-book to her. “ If you care to show it to your 
mother/' he said, “ please take it ; I will call for it this 
evening some time ; I won't want it until the morning." 

The next moment he had left her standing alone with 
his sketch-book in one hand and the little box containing 
the head of the Greek Venus in the other. When she 
crossed the gangway, one of the Sudanese boys com- 
menced brushing the dust off her clothes with the usual 
long-handled ostrich-feather broom. In doing so he very 
nearly knocked the box out of Stella's hands. 

She turned upon him impatiently. “ If you had broken 
that curio I think I'd have killed you," she said with 
such vehemence that the next moment she was ashamed 
of her outburst of temper, and also angered at the sudden 
realization of the value she placed upon the little Greek 
head of a nameless woman ! 

The Sudanese did not understand ; he was accustomed to 
far stronger expressions of wrath at his stupidity, but it 
was the first time the gentle daughter of the house had 
ever shown the slightest trace of bad temper. 


CHAPTER XII 


Michael Ireton did not see Stella when he called the same 
evening for his sketch-book, but Nicolas, who had almost 
recovered from his slight attack of “ the sun,"' greeted 
him with charming hospitality, and introduced him to his 
mother. Mr. Lekejian had left Luxor the day before 
with Girgis Boutros : his presence was needed in Cairo. 
Mrs. Lekejian had heard her son and daughter speaking 
of Michael Ireton ; they had told her how much his company 
had added to their enjoyment of the day spent in the 
Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, and Stella had been 
perfectly frank about the painting-lesson he had given her 
in the morning, and so, when he presented himself on 
board the Isis, Mrs. Lekejian gave him one of her genial 
Irish smiles, as she said : “I have seen your picture of 
my daughter ; we all think it is extremely good, if a little 
too flattering." 

“ I'm glad you like it," he said ; “ I will do a larger 
sketch from it for you, if you would care to have it ? " 

“ Will you really ? " Her bright eyes smiled their grati- 
tude. ‘‘ How very kind of you ! Her father will be de- 
lighted — ^you've caught her expression wonderfully." Mrs. 
Lekejian noticed that the man's eyes were looking round 
the deck drawing-room, as though they were trying to 
find the original of the portrait. ‘‘ My daughter is writing 
her weekly letter to her old school-mistress in London," 
she said ; she was a second mother to her for many 
years, and Stella is devoted to her." 

As a matter of fact Stella had intentionally absented 
herself from the deck drawing-room, because Michael 
Ireton had told her that he would call in the evening for 
his sketch-book, and she could not help feeling a little 
uncertain about their growing intimacy. The “ little " 
voice that can never be silenced had told her aU the 


123 


124 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


afternoon that it would be self-deception on her part to 
assume an ignorance of the man's very evident admiration 
for herself — and would Vernon like her to see much more 
of him ? He had been jealous of him during their first 
conversation in Luxor Temple. Her letter to Miss Mac- 
Naughtan was scrappy and distrait, for over and over again 
her ear caught the sound of Michael Ireton's voice as he 
talked to her brother and mother on the deck drawing-room. 
Mrs. Lekejian was evidently finding him good company, for 
many times Stella heard her infectious laughter ringing 
out like a girl's. She tried very hard to obliterate the 
man from her mind, and to tell Miss MacNaughtan about 
the “ sights " she had been doing, but in spite of her 
determination, she could not help seeing his well -shaped, 
powerful hands holding the little terra-cotta head of the 
Tanagra figure between two fingers, or feeling his masterful 
presence standing over her, as he had stood in the morning 
while he criticised her sketch. At last, angry with her- 
self and annoyed with the Fates for having taken Vernon 
away from her so soon after their reunion, she put away 
her writing things and went to bed. From her bed in 
the state-room, which was as dainty as money and good 
taste could make it, she could hear the strange night 
noises of the East, and see from her window the wonderful 
stars in the heavens, and she could not hear the voices on 
the deck drawing-room. But she did not sleep until long 
after Michael Ireton's hearty voice had called out “ Good 
night, then I'll call round in the morning and see what 
you're going to do. If you don't want to go out until the 
cool of the day I will give Miss Lekejian another lesson if 
she likes — she's going to look upon me in the light of her 
master." 

“ Thank you," Nicolas said. “ We don't care for her 
wandering about this place alone, and mother's not much 
of a hand at sight-seeing ; it's awfully good of you." 

“ Not at all ; it's most awfully kind of you to take pity 
on my loneliness." 

The tone of his voice was so casual that Stella could 
not help smiling when she compared it with the look of 
pleasure she had seen in his eyes when she had permitted 
him to take the place of her “ donkey-boy." 

When Michael Ireton was out of hearing, Mrs. Lekejian 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


125 


slipped her hand through her son's arm : “ Let's take a little 
walk, dear. What a nice fellow, and how interesting ! " 

“ Chance acquaintances are often the pleasantest. I 
got into conversation with him in the hotel the other day." 
He paused, and then added, “ He must be all right, though, 
for we exchanged cards yesterday, and he belongs to two 
good clubs, and Professor Eritep's going to have him in 
his camp for a few weeks. He's awfully keen about Egypt- 
ology, although he's only taken it up as a hobby." 

“ He's a mining engineer, isn't he ? " 

“ Yes, but I fancy he's made a good deal of money in 
rubber. He's taking a long rest for such a young man. 
He says he had a bad attack of fever, the first he's ever had, 
and he was advised to take a year's holiday." 

“ He's a splendid type — what a physique ! " 

‘‘ A fine physique, with fine brains at the back of it ; 
there's something very simple and primitive about him, 
isn't there ? " 

“ Yes, that's his charm ; he strikes one as a man who 
has not much in common with modern society ... is he 
married ? " 

“ I shouldn't think so ; he's not mentioned his wife if 
he is." 

Mrs. Lekejian was silent while they took their last turn 
forward on the deck. She was thinking that, although he 
seemed to be a good many years her daughter's senior, 
he was much more the type of man she had imagined 
Stella would have chosen to marry than Vernon Thorpe ; 
at the same time she had to admit to herself that one 
does not meet a Michael Ireton every day, that he was 
quite individual. She could think of no one else that she 
knew quite like him, so of course Stella could have had 
no such personality as his for her girlish ideal ; still she 
could not help feeling that Michael Ireton might have been 
a dangerous rival . . . she gave a long sigh. 

“ What's that for, mother dear ? " Nicolas said. 

“ Oh ! I don't quite know, my son," she caressed his 
hand affectionately. “ I was only thinking : and how is 
it that when one thinks one instinctively sighs ? " 

“ Thinking about what ? " 

“ About Stella." 

It was Nicolas's turn to remain silent. 


126 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


“ I think Mr. Ireton's the sort of man who would have 
understood ‘ things ' better ! He's so broad-minded, he has 
a wider conception of life." 

Nicolas stooped and kissed his mother; it was their 
parting for the night. “ Your children are very per- 
verse, little mother — perverse and foolish ? " 

She knew what her son alluded to, she pressed his cheek 
close to her own. “ You've fought the fight splendidly, 
dear." 

“ I am absolutely fire-proof now, so I've something to 
be thankful for," he said with a forced gaiety in his voice. 
“ No more burnt fingers for me, no more playing with 
fire. I'm going to stick to work — there's nothing like it." 

A little sadness showed through his mother's smile as 
she said, “ For some years anyhow, dear ; and you've 
always got me." 

‘‘ For ever," Nicolas said ; “ unless I can find a duplicate 
of you ... if I could, you'd have a daughter-in-law at 
once." 

‘‘ I don't think you could find another ‘ me,' dear, for I 
am now what your father has made me. I was a silJy 
scatterbrained thing when he married me, you can't 
imagine how scatterbrained." 

“ You darling," he said ; “ you must have been lovely. 
Good night." 


CHAPTER XIII 


Michael Ireton rose the next morning with an appetite 
for life that kept him singing snatches of odd native songs 
while he dressed, and thinking thoughts that made his 
big being tingle with an almost boyish delight. 

He had never been in love before, and he was now as 
completely and wholeheartedly under the influence of the 
malady or Elixir as any youth in his twenties. He had 
found the woman he had been looking for all his life, and 
he was going to have her ; in his hard struggles in life 
his strong will had surmounted all difficulties — and so 
if there were any unforeseen difficulties in the way of 
winning Stella for his wife he meant to overrule them. 
Something told him that if he was given a sporting chance 
he could make her love him — the very manner in 
which she drew her eyes away from his sometimes, and 
the way she avoided his at others, helped him in his belief ; 
at the same time he recognized that, although there were 
passion and tragedy in her wonderful eyes, she was 
sensitive and highly strung to an unusual degree, that, 
in spite of her Eastern ancestry on her father's side, her 
nature was exquisitely pure and vhginal. 

Her lasting affection would only be won through the 
intellect, not by the senses. If he could only make her 
miss his intellectual companionship when he was not 
with her ! if he could win her intellectual sympathies before 
she recognized his own love for her ! But how hard it 
would be to see her and be with her in the exuberant 
life of the East, surrounded by that light and atmosphere 
which alone sets a man's blood tingling and makes his 
imagination sail out to shoreless seas, without betraying 
his feelings for her ! As he walked down to the little 
landing-stage where the Isis was moored, he made all 

127 


128 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


sorts of determinations to treat her with platonic natural- 
ness and so win her friendship. 

SteUa waved her hand to him as she saw him across the 
gangway; her 'action was so friendly and expressed so 
much girlish pleasure at the anticipation of another of 
Luxor's glorious days that he felt it was easy to answer 
her in the same light-hearted way. “ Are you coming to 
sketch," he said, “ or going to Thebes ? " 

She held up her block. “ Sketch. Nicolas mustn't go 
out until it's cooler, but he's better." 

When Michael Ireton was beside her he said, “ How do you 
do ?" He was not going to lose the opportunity of holding 
her hand in his if it was only for one moment : he felt like 
a foolish lad. 

“ Where would you like to go ? " He said the words 
with perfectly assumed politeness of manner, although a 
glorious feeling of thankfulness to the gods surged through 
his being. It was absurd, and he himself owned it, the 
way in which the slim, almost fragile girl in front of 
him had the power to affect him. He had to fight as 
fiercely with his own nature as he had ever fought against 
rebellious natives in primitive lands, to maintain his self- 
control ; but he did it so magnificently that Stella com- 
forted herself with the assurance that her fears of the 
day before had been groundless, sheer vanity on her part. 

“ Do you know what I think would be delightful ? " 
she said. Her being was all delight to-day. 

“ No ! tell me, and if it can be done we'll do it. Isn't 
life glorious in a land like this ? " 

“ How does it appeal to you," she said in mock serious- 
ness of tone, “ to take a boat and idle on the water for 
an hour or two : we could get some nice effects on the 
river. If Nicolas had been well enough to go, we might 
have taken our lunch and ridden through Thebes and right 
on to a wonderful road which winds up to those rocks on 
the top of the hills until you reach the heights of the 
Sahara." She pointed to the Theban hiUs w'hich lie 
behind the plain where the great city stood. 

“ That sounds fascinating," he said. He knew that her 
words implied that she could not go for so long a time 
with him unaccompanied by her brother. 

I have a childish longing," SteUa said, “ to sit quite 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


129 


alone on the Sahara . . She paused. “ I want to hear 
its centuries of ‘ silence ' rolling up like a mighty ocean — 
it must be awful ! Isn't it strange to think that the great 
African desert lies on the top of these hills ? " 

“ Do you like being alone ? " he said, “ I've lived so 
much alone that I can't do without solitude ; I never 
know what loneliness is except in cities." 

“ Oh ! that's just what I feel," she said : ‘‘ being lonely 
does not consist in being alone, it's being with people that 
bore you, that don't understand your interests, isn't it ? 
They make you feel the utterest and most abject loneli- 
ness." 

“ Yes," he said, but that's because you're intellectually 
minded : ordinary folk would rather talk to anybody than 
nobody. I wouldn't, and you wouldn't." 

“ Is it ? " she said, ‘‘I don't know. I only know that 
the loneliest feelings I have ever endured have been in 
crowds and at parties." She sighed. 

The little touch of pathos which so feminized her face 
reminded him of the night he had watched her at the opera. 

‘‘ I am always ‘ bored to tears ' at parties," he said 
lightly ; ‘‘I hate them and avoid them like the plague, 
while being alone I often find too exciting — do you know 
what I mean ? " 

“ Absolutely," she said, ‘‘ that's exactly what I feel, 
only I never actually realized it before. . . ." She smiled ; 
her whole being was expressive of complete mental 
sympathy. “ I suppose mixing with the dull ordinary 
world keeps us sane : mother says that if all the world 
were made like me the lunatic asylums would be full ; she 
thinks she's splendidly matter-of-fact, and so she is in 
a way." 

They were walking together to the point where they 
were to take one of the gay little pleasure-boats which flit 
across the Nile like butterflies of tropical colouring . . . 
nothing but the present enjoyment of the day was in their 
minds, and the consciousness that nothing they enjoyed 
or noticed would be overlooked or unappreciated by 
either of them. The man was keenly alive to all that 
their enjoyment signified, the girl was not. Her conscience 
was undisturbed by any thought of disloyalty to Vernon. 

When they were comfortably seated in the boat and 

9 


130 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


were settling themselves to paint, Stella drew her gloves 
off her hands and took out her paint-box from its leather 
bag ; she little dreamt the issue that was to result from 
her action. 

“ What a curious ring that is I” he said as he watched her 
movements : “ I noticed it yesterday. Has it a history ? 
Having no precious stones in it, the importance attached 
to the ring, although it was on the third finger of her left 
hand, never dawned on him for one moment. 

Stella's heart stood still ; she paused for courage, and 
then she said slowly : ‘‘ It is my engagement ring ! " 

In the acute silence that followed the girl knew, though 
her eyes were fixed on her paint-box, that the man in front 
of her was struggling for recovery from the blow her 
words had dealt him. She had not meant to tell him so 
abruptly, even though she had assured herself that his 
feelings for her were only platonic ; but the situation left 
no loophole — she had to tell him there and then or deceive 
him, and she could not allow such disloyalty to Vernon. 

With the greatest care she heard him letting the 
sigh, which, as it came from his lips very slowly, sounded 
like a sob, escape from his soul : it expressed all she 
had feared in the woman part of her, which could not be 
deceived. 

Your engagement ring ! " he said. So you are going to 

be married ? you love some one else ? " 

“Yes," Stella said, “ you met my fiance that evening 
in Luxor Temple." They had travelled so far on the won- 
derful road of friendship, that secret road which knows 
no time or limits, that she spoke as though that evenmg 
w^as far, far away ; the very Nile itself had rolled under 
the Bridge of Life since then. She let her eyes meet his 
— she w'^as compelled to. The look of surprise she saw in 
them suddenly angered her, for unintentionally they had 
told her that in his mind now she was either very different 
from what he had thought her, or that intellectually 
she could have nothing in common with Vernon, that, 
from the highest standpoint, she did not love him. 

“ He had to return to Cairo on duty," she said, a little 
hotly ; “ he is a soldier, and his week's leave, w hich we 
had waited for so long and had planned to spend at 
Luxor, was spoilt by the illness of his commanding officer : 


A WIPE OUT OF EGYPT 131 

he had to return after he had only been in Luxor one 
evening/" 

Stella had spoken quickly and with an uncontrollable 
nervousness in her voice. 

How very disappointing ! What were you thinking 
of sketching ? Yes, that"s a good piece of composition, 
let"s do that."" 

Stella had indicated the little scene she had hurriedly 
decided to paint. How thankful she was to think that 
while they worked there could be sdence, for the man"s 
casual voice hurt her more than any blame could have 
done, and yet, if she chose to deny her own conscience, 
she could justify herself by saying that she had only met 
him three times ; that they were practically strangers ; 
that she had up till now had no opportunity of telling him 
of her engagement to Vernon. But her womanhood told 
her that it was a lie. Her real self, the self that the man 
in front of her understood as few people had ever done, 
knew perfectly well that, on that evening in the Arab 
restaurant when their eyes had met for the second time, 
she had had her warning. For they had told her that 
if ever they were to meet her womanhood could draw him 
to her, that her womanhood could rend him in pieces, until 
all his highness and masterfulness had melted away and he 
had become like unto a little child again. 

After twenty minutes had passed, the longest twenty 
minutes Stella ever recollected, Michael Ireton broke the 
silence by saying, in a voice over which he had at last a 
perfect mastery — he had half a sheet of note-paper in 
his hand, which he had taken out of his pocket — I came 
across this when I was reading last night ; I thought it 
would amuse you, so I copied it out."" He held it out to 
her. It is a Ptolemaic school-boy "s letter, written about 
two thousand years ago."" 

Stella read it aloud: It was good of you to send me 
presents on the 12th, the day you sailed. Send me a lyre, 
I implore you. If you don"t, I won"t eat, I won"t drink. 
There now. I pray for your good health."" 

“ How deliciously human ! "" 

She looked up with laughter-lit eyes : it happened to be 
one of her most adorable moments, it was her expression — 
the one he loved best. Such a fierce desire came to Michael 


132 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


Ii'eton to take her face in his two hands and kiss it, that 
he said abruptly, “Let us go home; that's to say, if you 
don't mind." 

He had made no remark upon the letter, and his tone, 
almost cross in its abruptness, made her hand him back 
the paper a little nervously. “Certainly, let's go back," 
she said shyly ; “ boys haven't changed much, have 
they ? " 

“Human nature never changes," he said, “only customs." 
The true meaning of his words was conveyed by his tone. 

In a very few moments the boatman had pulled them 
to the point from which they had embarked and they 
were walking silently back to the Isis, When they reached 
the landing-stage Michael Ireton left her with an abrupt 
“ good-bye." A hard anger had suddenly possessed him 
which would not allow him to behave, as he would like to 
have done, with a studied indifference to the fact that he 
now knew that she was engaged ; a fierce anger at his own 
folly, that he should have allowed himself to walk blind- 
foldedly into a trap — ^for certainly it was a trap — kept him 
silent. 

Love had set its trap with a callous cruelty which by 
Michael Ireton was wholly undeserved, for he had never 
flouted Love nor had he even scorned it ; neither had he 
dishonoured it : he had instead reverenced it by refusing 
to put a false god in its place, calling it by the name of 
Love. And now, when all his reserve forces had been let 
loose, now when his finest passions were ready to worship 
and enjoy his realized ideal of womanhood. Love had 
struck him a deadly blow ; it had trapped him only to 
laugh him to scorn. 


CHAPTER XIV 


The next morning when Stella was dressing her boy 
Yehla brought a note to her state-room door. She thought 
it was probably from Nicolas, as he was in the habit of 
sending her notes in the morning if there had been any 
development in the arrangements for the day which she had 
not heard the night before, so she told him to hold it while 
she finished tying her neck-tie. When she took it in 
her hand the handwriting made her start : she had only 
seen it once, in the Ptolemaic school-boy"s letter — it was 
Michael Ireton's. She opened it with a certain nervousness 
and quickening of her heart- beats. What could it be 
about ? Something with reference to her engagement, 
she felt sure. Was he going to blame her, had she been to 
blame ? But it was not ; it only contained a few lines : 

“ Dear Miss Lekejian, 

“ Will you forgive my apparent rudeness yesterday 
morning sufficiently to allow me to join your party this 
morning ? As an excuse for any future lapses from con- 
ventional politeness please remember my long absences 
from civilization and be charitable to your apologetic 
savage. 

“ Yours sincerely, 

“ Michael Ireton.'' 

When Stella had finished reading the note and was 
standing with it, absently wondering what she was to do, 
her boy said : “ Khadim (servant) waits an answer, sitt” 
Oh ! does he ? Stella said, while she puzzled her 
brains to decide what she ought to do. It would certainly 
be delightful to have his companionship all day at Thebes, 
and besides, how could she say ‘‘ No '' without arousing 
Nicolas's suspicions. And after all, what reasons had she 
for assuming that the man cared for her ? — it was sheer 

133 


134 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


vanity on her part ; his letter was an ample proof that 
she had only lierseK to consider ; and when her thoughts 
turned to Vernon she said : ‘‘ He"s enjoying himself in 

Cairo, his letters are all about dances and fun/’ She 
took up her letter-block, and hastily scribbled a few words 
which sent Michael Ireton’s weather-glass of happiness 
flying up when he read them. 

“ Dear jMr. Ireton, 

“ Yes, do come, I should be so disappointed if 
you didn’t. I’m afraid I prefer savages to civilized humbugs. 
At least you know what they want, and don’t want. 

“ Yours sincerely, 

“ Hadassah Lekejian.” 

If Michael Ireton had fallen in love with Stella Lekejian 
when he was twenty instead of thirty-six he would in 
all probability have kissed the paper her note was written 
upon ; instead of which he gave a packet of expensive cigar- 
ettes to his weary-looking bedroom-boy and made up his 
mind to enjoy the pleasures the day would bring forth 
without grousing about things that could not be helped. 

And the day proved delightful. More than once Stella 
congratulated herself upon her wisdom in having aUowxd 
him to come with them, for he made himself so amusing, 
and contrived to set her mind comfortably at rest upon 
the point that now, since he knew that she was engaged 
to Vernon Thorpe, he was capable of carrying on their 
friendship on a purely platonic and intellectual footing. The 
very fact that he was many years her senior helped her to 
believe that if he had entertained any other kind of liking 
for her he was able to brush it aside and start on another 
basis. For one thing, Nicolas rarely left them alone for 
many minutes together, and the archaeological interest of 
Thebes was so absorbing that it allowed very little time for 
talking about personal or abstract matters. But the day 
was by no means a negative one in the developing of 
the issues which Fate had in view, for it only bound 
the man’s feet more securely in the trap which merciless 
Love had set for him. Forced to dwell only upon in- 
tellectual matters, he saw more and more convincingly how 
correct he had been in his estimation of the girl’s character. 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


135 


There was the assurance of complete affinity in their in- 
tellectual interests and pleasures. To Stella it proved 
that very human -and -intellectual elements can be found 
so perfectly blended in mankind as to make up an 
almost ideal companion. She was not the least conscious 
that she had laughed oftener since she had known Michael 
Treton than she had done since she was at school in London. 
His humour, which was always expressed in the most serious 
and apparently spontaneous manner, appealed keenly to 
her sense of the ridiculous ; and, as he loved to make her 
laugh, because laughter brought into play the most vanning 
touches in her mobile face, he exerted himself to amuse her 
in a way she never for one moment suspected. 

For the rest of the days of that golden week in Luxor, 
whose quality of beauty intoxicates men's senses and lulls 
into forgetfulness their knowledge of life's woes, Michael 
Ireton contrived to spend many hours of each day, and 
also of each star-lit night, at Stella's side. 

With really superb control he had been able to do so 
because he never allowed the girl to feel for one moment 
that in seeing him she was being in any way disloyal to 
her lover, even to the extent of permitting a man for whom 
she herself had no feelings other than those of friendship, 
but Avho loved her, to be constantly by her side. Each 
night when he tore himself away from the seat in the 
bows of the Isis where they had talked and thought, 
and studied the mythology of ancient Egypt — that seat 
where, with dexterous management, he always contrived to 
arrange for the next day's meeting, if it was to be a lesson, 
or an excursion — Michael Ireton knew that he was laying 
up a store for himself, a mountain of suffering, the climbing 
of which he dared not contemplate. Yet so absolutely 
sufficient for the day was the Joy thereof, that he was 
willing to accept the debt he had to pay for his brief cup 
of happiness, or rather pleasure, for there was infinite 
sadness in it — yet he drank to the dregs. Even when they 
parted, he managed to hide from Stella his real feelings ; 
that is to say, while they were actually together, for he 
spoke lightheartedly of their probable meeting later on 
in Cairo ; he was going in the interval to Professor Eritep's 
camp at Abydos, where a site of prehistoric interest was 
being excavated, to throw his whole soul into the work. 


136 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


On their last evening together they lighted upon a topic 
of conversation which was to bear fruit in a curious way in 
Stella's future life. They were referring to a conversation 
Stella had had with a Coptic girl of about fifteen years of 
age who had placed herself near them when they were 
eating their lunch in the ruins of the only building of a 
domestic nature left standing in Thebes to-day. Stella 
had asked the girl if she could read and she had answered 
proudly that she could. Stella then asked her what the 
little blue cross meant that was tattooed on her wrist ; she 
knew its significance, but she wished to find out if the girl 
did. She gave a lengthy explanation that it was put 
there when she was a little child to show that she was a 
Christian. Thereupon Stella asked her if she knew why a 
cross was a token of Christianity. 

The girl shook her head. “ No, sitt,'* she said. 

“ Do you not know anything about the story of the Cross 
and Who died upon it ? " 

The girl again said, “No, sitt,'* and shook her head 
gravely. 

Michael Ire ton had made a quick sketch of the girl, who 
was a typical Copt, with tragic eyes and an aquiline nose. 
It was when they were looking over his sketch-book that 
the subject of the child's general ignorance and her total 
indifference to the meaning of the cross which she so 
glibly said attested her right to be termed a Christian, that 
Stella said, “ Please don't laugh if I tell you that I have 
been nursing a great ambition, ever since I returned to 
Egypt, about this very subject, iDut I'm afraid it's hopeless 
now." 

“ May I hear it ? " 

“ You'll think it foolish, perhaps, and unpractical, but it 
always comes up again and again — the desire to carry it 
out, I mean." 

She was silent for a moment. 

“ I never give up a thing I want to do, a thing that 
carries conviction with it, without a big fight. Have you 
tried . . . ? " 

“It's very difficult : I want to work in a practical way ..." 
she paused to find a mode of expressing just what she 
meant. “ It sounds so grand to say that I want to work for 
the elevation of the Coptic women in Egypt, but that's 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


137 


what I do mean. I don't mean by giving big sums of 
money — father does that — but by teaching them myself the 
simplest things about . . . well . . . about ..." she paused, 
at a loss for words, “ about the self-respect of womanhood 
and the virtue of cleanliness and . . ." she looked at him 
for response, and in his eyes she found all that she needed. 

“ Then why don't you do it ? " he said, “ who could do 
it better with your . . . with your intimate knowledge of 
their language, and also with what I should think is ex- 
tremely necessary — an intimacy with their most sacred 
superstitions — ^you would be able to do magnificent work." 
He looked pleased with the idea. ‘‘ Make a fight for it," 
he said ; “ don't let really surmountable difficulties be 
magnified into insurmountable ones." 

For a few moments both the man's mind and the girl's 
were lost in thought, but they were travelling on the same 
road. 

“ Would your father allow you to do it ? " 

Stella knew by the expression of his eyes and voice that 
he really meant, “ Would your lover ? " 

“ Yes, in time I think he would/' she said, “ when I am 
a little older ; but it is all out of the question now — I feel 
that it is quite hopeless." 

“ Your marriage ? " He forced the words out of him- 
self in a way which made the colour mount to Stella's 
cheeks ; it was the only indication he had shown, since the 
morning in the boat when she had told him of her en- 
gagement, of any personal feeling for her which was not 
wholly platonic. 

Yes," she said, “ Vernon hates my having the slightest 
connection with anything which he calls ‘ native.' " 

There was a deep silence once more, in which Michael 
Ireton heard the girl's quicker and more nervous breathing. 

“ Of course as a soldier's wife you would not have much 
opportunity." He rose from his seat beside her and leaned 
over the bows of the boat : something stronger than his 
own self-control would be required, if he sat by her side any 
longer, to prevent him from taking her in his arms ; the only 
thing to do was to leave her. Stella still sat on her com- 
fortable seat surrounded by soft cushions, but they seemed 
made of thorns — she felt that suddenly the air was quick- 
ened with a new force, a force which was almost unbearable. 


138 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


The feeling was purely psychic, for not one word had been 
said to produce it, and in Michael Ireton's voice anything 
but tenderness was depicted. At the moment he was a 
savage, clinging to every civilized quality that primitive 
man has adopted to help him to hide his strongest passions. 
He knew that the girl would scorn him for ever if he behaved 
dishonourably to her trust in him as a chosen friend, and 
that he would consider himself as a cad if he did ; so, in a 
voice which had completely recovered its habitual friendly 
tone, he turned from his silent study of the wonderful 
heavens, dancing with a million stars, and said : “I hate 
good-byes, so I'm only going to say good-night. I'm off." 
He held out his hand ; Stella put hers limply in his. An 
awful sense of numbness had come over her with his words. 

‘‘ Good-bye," she said, “ and thank you a thousand times 
for all my lessons ; I shall miss them." 

‘‘ It's I who have to thank you," he said with measured 
politeness, “ it's been a delightful week." His voice w^as so 
coldly conventional that Stella felt her numbness increasing. 
Then suddenly he raised her hand to his lips and with a 
tender fierceness pressed a farewell kiss on the beautiful 
fingers. “ Good-bye, dear little girl ; good-bye, and God bless 
you." 

The next moment he had walked, with his swinging 
strides, swiftly away to say good-bye to her mother and 
Nicolas, and Stella, after pressing her hands to her face 
for one wild moment of turbulent emotion, dropped them 
determinedly and set herself down before a copy of “ The 
Sketch." She made a brave attempt to read it and not 
imagine foolish things about the man who, in spite of his 
kindness to her, only thought of her as a “ little girl." 

A quarter of an hour later, as Michael Ireton stepped across 
the gangway of the Isis, she saw him turn and look up at 
the spot where she was sitting ; she rose impulsively from 
her seat and, leaning over the edge of the boat, she called out 
to him, Md-as-saldmah " (good-bye). 

‘‘ 1^0, not ‘ good-bye,' " he said, ‘‘ for I shall see you in 
Cairo ; only ‘ Ultah sd-idah ' " (good-night). 

From the camp about a week later he sent her one of 
the many letters he had written to her, letters written 
to satisfy his ever-increasing desire to speak to her, or 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


139 


hold some sort of communication with her. Each one he 
wrote, even while he was penning it, he knew he would not 
send, yet in a measure it helped to relieve his pent-up 
feelings. The one he eventually sent ran thus : 

“ My dear Little Friend, 

I am trying my hardest to think of your happiness 
and enjoyment from a purely unselfish standpoint, for 
which, if you only knew it, I deserve some praise. What 
could be more delightful than your life at present ? Doing 
things you love with the person you love best in this world, 
in this wonderful climate and in this wonderful land — you 
are to be envied ! As for myself, you have given me so 
much pleasure that it would be ungrateful of me to com- 
plain if you have also quite innocently given me much pain. 

“ La Vie est vaine^. 

Un peu d’amour, 

Un peu de haine, 

Et puis : Bon jour ! 

La Vie est breve, 
tin peu d’espoir, 

Un peu de reve, 

Et puis : Bon soir ! ” 

“ The work here is ‘thrilling.’ I know, with your love 
for prehistoric and early dynastic things, how you would 
enjoy it. 

“ Always your most sincere friend, 

“ Michael Ireton. 

‘‘Pbofessor Eritep’s Ca]vip, Abydos.” 


CHAPTER XV 


After a two weeks" absence Vernon was able to rejoin the 
Lekejians, who had moved their dahabeah to Assouan. As 
Stella knew only too well that it did not matter to him 
where he met them, she selected Assouan, for there they 
would be able to go for long rides in the desert and get 
better sailing than at Luxor. She was conscious of the 
fact, without acknowledging it to herself, that she would 
be happier with her lover at Assouan, playing tennis in 
the splendid gardens of the Cataract Hotel, and amusing 
themselves with a sailing- boat on the wide reaches of the 
river which lie between Assouan and Komombo, than doing 
the same ancient buildings with him in Thebes and Luxor 
that she had done with Michael Ireton ; in fact, she was 
glad to leave Luxor. 

The monuments of Egypt affected Stella strangely, for 
while she gloried in them intellectually, they made her 
profoundly miserable. In all her life she had never been 
so unhappy as at the great temple of Abu Simbel, which 
they had visited in the interval between Luxor and Assouan ; 
it was a sort of unhappiness which was new to her, for in- 
stead of it being caused by some definite reason, it was 
the result of the sudden realization that nothing mattered ; 
that she herself, as a personality, did not exist. This feeling 
that nothing mattered, or ever had mattered in so fleeting 
a thing as the life-time of a human being, brought with 
it the sensation that she no longer had any passion for 
Vernon, that she could never again love him as she had 
once loved him ; yet even this did not seem to matter enough 
to cause her any pain. It was as though the age and 
cynicism of Egypt had withered her emotions. 

But it was, above all, the feeling of self -extinction which 
unnerved and exhausted her physically. In the temples 
and tombs she was under the dominion of Age, she was 

140 


A WIPE OUT OF EGYPT 


141 


possessed by the Power of the Unseen ; for the time being 
humanity mattered to her no more than the bats and 
scorpions and spiders which housed themselves in the 
subterranean halls of the Pharaohs. Suddenly, too, she 
seemed to understand why Egyptians are so cruel, for what 
do pain or suffering matter to things which in themselves 
do not matter ? 

At Abu Simbel she had risen at dawn, with Nicolas, to 
see the sun enter the vast hall of the temple and move 
slowly up the Osiris-guarded aisle to the high altar. She 
saw it enter as the God Harmachis (the rising sun) has 
entered that indestructible sanctuary, hewn out of the 
rock-battlement of the Nile, for more than three thousand 
years. When Nicolas saw the effect the ancient buildings 
were having upon his sister’s nerves he was only too 
to fall in with her plan for returning to Assouan. It was 
only when she had left the buildings for some time that 
she enjoyed them without this sense of depression. 

After being at Assouan for a few days Stella was surprised 
to find that she had returned quite unconsciously to her 
former state of being, that her own existence was once 
more, to herself at least, a thing of very conscious and 
vital importance, and that Vernon’s letters were still 
capable of stirring her pulses and making her long for his 
presence. At Abu Simbel she had seen into the future — 
into the time when this period of the world’s history will 
be as far removed from the generations that are to follow 
as the people of the age of Rameses are removed from 
us. At Abu Simbel she had not wanted Vernon, for he 
would have expected her to be human, and that would 
have been impossible, for neither herself nor humanity 
any longer existed, her being was swallowed up in Egypt. 
He would have wanted her to respond to his presence as a 
lover, even while the great Harmachis was crossing the 
threshold of his house. She was relieved that he was 
not there to feel bored instead of elated by the Majesty 
and Dominion and Power of this most strangely romantic 
of all temples on the Nile. 

Now at Assouan, with its modern tennis-courts and 
gay flower-gardens, riding by Vernon’s side along the 
same desert track which led the ancients to the Land of 
Gold — that camel-path to Ethiopia from whence came ivory 


142 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


and frankincense and myrrh for the greater glorification 
of the gods of Thebes, she could think pleasurable thoughts 
of Abu Simbel ; of its flowering acacia trees, which dipped 
their lower branches into the waters of the Nile, while 
their upper foliage screened the facade of the building 
from the curious eyes of the toilers on the river. How 
refreshing had been the sight of these golden flowers — 
how wholly unexpected the figures of the giants -in -stone, 
whose grave faces had looked sternly down upon her as 
she mounted the steep bank which led from the river's 
edge to the temple porch ! Now, at Assouan, her state of 
mind was so normal and so healthy that she could tell 
Vernon all about the great temples and the tombs of the 
kings which she had seen, without even remembering that 
they had caused her both fear and depression. She could 
describe to him how at Abu Simbel the feathery branches 
of the acacia trees had come almost into her cabin, so close 
did they grow to the water's edge, and how the powdery 
balls of the golden blossom had fallen like a fairy carpet 
on their deck. She told him how the great Rameses had 
built the temple as a monument to his victory over the 
IHieta, who were struggling to retain their supremacy 
over the northern part of her own country, Syria, and 
how he had dedicated the temple to Horns, the Sun-god, 
who at the break of day calls himself Harmachis. 

It was chiefly to please herself that she told him these 
details and lingered glowingly over the mystery and 
romance of the building, for she wished to at least give 
him the chance of entering into her feelings and aesthetic 
enjoyments. If she banished these things from her life 
when she was with him, their sympathies would eventually 
become wholly one-sided ; besides, there was the subtler 
feeling of guilt v/hich she wished to atone for. In her 
heart she would have loved to cherish and keep all these 
intellectual intimacies and sympathies for her absent 
friend, the friend whom she persisted in thinking of as 
only intellectually dear to her. It was because she was 
jealous of sharmg her intellectual being with any one but 
him that she was forced by the dictates of “ the little 
voice "" to talk to Vernon about them more than was at 
all necessary. 

She always felt that Vernon was only holding his soul 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


143 


in patience while she gave vent to her feelings over things 
in which he honestly could not work up any genuine 
interest. He admired the various buildings he saw, because 
their size and age were things amazing enough to make 
him amazed without any effort. Their grandeur w^as 
obvious, their indestructibility awesome, but their history, 
or the meaning of their decorations, still did not interest 
him one scrap. When Stella began to talk about them, 
he would have yawned himself to sleep if he had not been 
in love with her. 

But their ride to the ancient granite quarries at Assouan 
was a different thing : it really delighted him, and on that 
occasion no one could have been a better companion. Their 
way took them very far from civilization, for nothing but 
desolation lies near to these historical quarries, from which 
were hewn the soaring obelisks and strange statues which 
are to-day treasured among the wonders of the world. 
He liked to see the marks of the chisel fresh upon un- 
finished statues and gods which had been commissioned 
by living kings some four thousand years ago, orders 
which had never been finished because the king had died 
and his successor had had his own glorification to attend 
to and was not going to pay for work which described the 
glory of a dead Pharaoh. .The desert round Assouan, 
with its forsaken cemeteries, where Moslem saints and 
Arab sheikhs lie buried in white-domed tombs as beautiful 
in the African sunlight as phantom cities of desert spirits, 
and the low tent homes of the wild Bishareen, delighted 
them both. This was the Egypt Vernon loved, and he 
asked for nothing more intellectual than riding in the 
desert or sailing on the wide stretches of the Nile in white- 
winged boats as gaily painted as the arches of a rainbow. 
He was as happy as a child. And for one whole week 
Stella, too, was completely and foolishly happy. Ghgis 
Boutros and his warnings were forgotten ; he had not 
dropped from the blue at wholly unexpected moments, 
and nothing had happened to remind her of the fact that 
in Cairo she would have to face the ordeal of Vernon seeing 
with his own eyes the position she held there in society. 
And to a true woman it is so delightful to be adored and 
considered beautiful that Stella basked in the warm sun 
shine of love and devotion. 


144 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


At Assouan they had dined once and lunched once in 
the huge hotel, which, from the point of view of good taste, 
ought never to have been built, so totally unsuited is it to 
the landscape, but which, on account of its exquisite situa- 
tion and perfect comfort, is filled to overfiowing every year 
with wealthy tourists who have discovered the health-giving 
qualities of Assouan air and the charm of its country life. 
On both occasions Stella had met people whom she had 
known in England, and they had been delightful to her, 
delightful because they had not yet been affected by the 
prejudices of Cairo. They begged her to come and see 
them in Cairo when they both returned from their trips 
up the Nile, and they were enthusiastic over the excursions 
they made with her father and mother on their house-boat. 

The Lekejians had taken them to Shellal, to see the 
great barrage. Mr. Lekejian knew one of the chief engineers, 
who showed them over the immense concern, and explained 
its history and workings. The day at the barrage was a 
day after Vernon's own heart, and it must be acknowledged 
that it was a day which might well have filled any English- 
man's heart with pride, for in constructing the barrage at 
Assouan the modern scientific builder has at last accom- 
plished a feat which the ancient Egyptians failed to do. 
These master-builders, whose many secrets have lain 
buried with them for endless centuries, never built, in all 
the history of Egypt, a monument to its greatness which 
benefited their country as this Assouan barrage has done. 
The temples and the tombs of Egypt were built for the 
glorification of the Pharaohs, out of the life-blood of the 
people ; the barrage at Assouan has been built to give 
food to the poor — in Egypt water means food. It is a 
comforting fact for an Englishman to remember, as he 
stands on that amazing structure, that once again in 
Egypt the hand of the builder has raised a monument of 
almost superhuman conception, a monument which can 
take its place with the buildings of the Pharaohs ; and 
he can reflect that it is under English rule that the first 
Monument to Humanity has been raised in a land where 
the English rule is vilified. It has been left for the English 
to bestow the unspeakable blessing of water alike upon the 
poor and the rich in Egypt. The barrage is a very Temple 
of Justice. Vernon was immensely impressed ; he would 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


145 


have liked to spend some days in inspecting it, but his 
“ leave '' passed all too quickly, and he had to rejoin 
liis regiment. 

As the Lekejians wished to visit the temples of Denderah 
and Komombo and Abydos on their way back to Cairo, 
Vernon got there a fortnight before Stella, and on the very 
eve of their arrival there he was ordered to go with his 
regiment to Helouan. They were to be in camp for a fort- 
night for manoeuvres. At Helouan he saw a good deal of 
society, for there are health-baths at Helouan which attract 
invalids, and it is needless to say that during these weeks 
he was initiated still further into some of the mysteries 
and peculiarities of Cairene society, and he would not have 
been human if during that initiation he had not shrunk 
from the knowledge, which was being slowly but surely 
forced upon him, that Hadassah Lekejian and Stella Adair 
were two very different people. He grew to wish that the 
girl who had ridden by his side at Assouan over the desert 
sands and under the clear skies was the Stella Adair he 
had known in London ... he would have given ten years 
of his life to be able to say truthfully to himseK that ‘‘ for 
the opinion of the English he did not care a damn ! "" He 
hated himself for loathing every Levantine, of whatever 
nationality, who obstructed his path as he hurried along 
the crowded thoroughfares where popular street caffe 
gather them together. It was no use his trying to affect 
anything like a fellow-feeling for even the most European- 
ized of Orientals, for he could not, and he sincerely hoped 
that they, in their turn, felt no such fellow-feeling for 
him. 

He was happily confident, however, that Stella, who, 
he was sure, had much the same dislike for them as he 
had (if she would only admit it), would be only too glad 
to shake the dust of Cairo for ever off her feet when she 
was married to him, and that once in England no one 
would ever know that she w^as not English, and if they 
did they would not care, for in London are not the doors 
in the most exclusive society open to Turks and Jews 
and Syrians, to the peoples of all races, in fact, if they 
are wealthy enough to entertain lavishly ? It is in the 
East that refined Syrians like Nicolas Lekejian and his 
family are treated as social outcasts by the English. Yet 
10 


146 


A WIPE OUT OF EGYPT 


in his soul (which was wholly British) he wished that his 
beloved Stella had not suddenly been changed into Ha- 
dassah Lekejian, the beautiful Syrian Hadassah whom the 
nice Englishmen in Cairo talked about with so much 
pity. His love for her had not lessened, but he would 
have given iv^orlds to have changed her back again into 
Stella Adair, and, above all things, to have been able to say 
to himself that Girgis Boutros was not her cousin ! The 
idea that she was conferring an honour upon him by 
marrying him had unconsciously faded away ; it had 
even occurred to him once or twice to wonder if Mrs. 
Lekejian had not very naturally encouraged Stella in her 
love for himself, for, of course, Mrs. Lekejian, being an 
Irishwoman, would naturally like to see her only daughter 
married to a European, and she was to be forgiven if she 
had kept Vernon in ignorance of Stella's true position in 
Cairo. 

But, to be quite fair to Stella's lover, his thoughts upon 
the subject were only natural ; they were not snobbish or 
disloyal. In camp at Helouan he had plenty of time for 
dwelling upon the situation, and his thoughts always ended 
in the same solution, that he would take Stella away just 
as soon as ever he could from Cairo (which he already 
detested cordially), and that in England she could have 
her parents to visit her as often as ever she pleased, but 
that never again would he permit her to live with them 
in the East. 


CHAPTER XVI 


Stella did not see Vernon after her return to Cairo for 
almost a week : it was not his fault, because he was still 
at Helouan. But to-night there was to be a reception at the 
British Agency, to which the Lekejian family had deter- 
mined to go, and Stella knew that she would see him 
there. Her reason for going was on account of the kindness 
the British Agent's wife had shown her at a cafe chantant 
which had been got up for a charity, and at which Stella 
had been induced to sing. 

Lady Minton had been charmed with the girl's voice 
and personality, and had insisted upon being introduced 
to her. Instantly realizing Stella's isolated position when 
she discovered that she was a Syrian, she exercised all 
her powers of sympathy to make her feel completely at 
her ease, and make her enjoy herself. In the kindest way 
she begged Stella and her mother to come and see her, 
and expressed the hope that they might enjoy many 
musical afternoons together. As Stella's heart was easily 
touched, and her nature intensely responsive to true 
sympathy, she determined to break through her rule of 
refusing all social functions of a public kind (she was never 
invited to private ones) and go to Lady Minton's official 
reception. Lady Minton's kindness to the girl had not, 
however, altered the residents' attitude towards the 
Lekejians ; they merely said, ‘‘ It is a great pity if Lady 
Minton is going to start doing this sort of thing ; it has 
been tried many times and has been found impossible. 
Leaving it off will hurt the girl's feelings much more than 
if she had never been noticed at all." So SteUa went to 
the reception, not only to show Lady Minton that she 
appreciated her kindness, but to get over the ordeal which 
she knew had to be faced, the ordeal of meeting Vernon 
amongst English people who liked to pretend that she 
did not exist. 


147 


148 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


It was some satisfaction to know that she was exquisitely 
dressed, and, as she passed one long mirror after another 
in the crowded rooms at the Agency, she could not help 
knowing that the vision of herself she saw in them was 
pleasing. It sustained her self-esteem, for, if she did not 
acknowledge to herself that she was charming, she at 
least comforted herseK with the thought that she was 
well turned-out and looking her very best. Excitement 
had brought a delicate colour to her usually pale cheeks, 
and her soft eyes seemed larger and more brilliant than 
ever. Stella was certainly the name best suited to her 
to-night, and any stranger would have been astonished 
to learn that she was not English — that her name was 
Hadassah Lekejian. 

After shaking hands with her hostess, who was naturally 
too occupied to say more than a few words to her, she 
soon found herseK by her mother's side again, watching 
the entrance of fresh arrivals. She knew that she would 
probably stay there all through the evening, and that 
she would scarcely speak half-a-dozen words to any one 
outside of her own party. She could see nothing of Vernon ; 
he had evidently not come after all. Soon her heart gave 
a little bound, and she felt the blood leave her cheeks, 
for he had entered the room with the very people who had 
told the man who had bowed to her from the British 
Agent's box at the opera that she was a Levantine or 
something, which had prevented him making any further 
attempt to renew their friendship. Vernon had been 
dining \\ith them, and Stella saw him talking quite in- 
timately to a pretty girl of the fair, conventional English 
type, the t}q)e of woman whom conventional men ap- 
prove of because they know exactly what to expect of 
them. The unaccustomed in women may be amusing in 
a mistress ; it is annoying in a wife. 

It would be impossible for Vernon to avoid seeing 
Stella after he had shaken hands with Lady Minton, and 
as his companion's mother was one of the leaders of 
Cairene society — who refused to receive “natives" of any 
kind in her house — Stella was a little excited to know 
what he would do. As they drew near her eyes met the 
blue eyes of the girl he was talking to. She was looking 
at Stella with very obvious admiration, so she may have 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


149 


said something about Stella, for her mother's diamond- 
crested lorgnettes went up, and Stella felt the cold scrutiny 
of two worldly eyes passing over her. It was her scrutiny 
of Stella which made Vernon suddenly notice her. A deep 
flush dyed his face, and for a moment he stopped hesi- 
tatingly, but it was only for a moment ; the next he had 
passed on with a bow and an embarrassed smile. His 
hostess was speaking to him, and telling him in a clear 
voice that ‘‘ some Levantines are quite beautiful when 
they are young, but that, like all natives, they quickly 
degenerate." 

At that moment Stella did not feel like the Biblical 
Esther of old, who hid her nationality from her lord in 
order to save her people ; she felt like Lot's wife when she 
was turned into a piUar of salt. Then suddenly rage 
seized her, and she could have murdered and torn in 
pieces every Englishwoman in the room. Tlie hideous 
cruelty of it, the hideous vulgarity of it, the hideous 
prejudice of it ! She did not blame Vernon, for somehow 
she felt that she had been through the scene many many 
times before, she felt as though it was inevitable that 
things should have happened just as they had happened. 
The band was playing a popular waltz, and the big room 
was becoming crowded ; faces she knew by sight were 
passing before her ; and aU the while she was talking 
to her brother Nicolas as though she was in a dream. 
She had no idea how long she had been standing by her 
mother's side mechanically talking about things that did 
not matter, about things she could not remember the 
moment after they were said — it might have been for 
hours — when Vernon came up to her. He seemed a little 
nervous, and explained that he had come just as soon as 
he could get away from his party. 

As he spoke to her a flood of devotion suddenly leapt 
in him : to see her standing by her parents' side, her young 
face frozen to a dreadful coldness, filled him vdth anger 
agamst his own race ; his eyes were so full of passion that 
hers melted a little as they looked into them, but the 
hand she held out to him was the hand of a stranger. 
She could not decide what she had expected him to do — 
that he should leave his hostess and dash impetuously 
towards her and claim her as his own — or what ? She 


150 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


did not know ; she only felt that he had not done as she 
would have done if their position had been reversed. 
Should he have said, when the cruel lorgnettes went up, 
‘‘ That is the girl I am engaged to. May I introduce her 
to you ? "" She did not know ; she only knew that that 
little moment of hesitation, that conventional bow, and 
that embarrassed smile, had placed worlds and worlds 
between them. She hoped that she would not allow him 
to kiss her when they were alone, she hoped that she w ould 
never again feel that delicious sense of she knew not what 
when his arms were round her, she hoped that she would 
never tolerate an Englishman's love again. He asked her 
to come for a walk through the rooms and go out on the 
terrace. Her mother smiled to her to go : anything was 
better than to see her child neglected and overlooked, 
while every one else in the room was gay and sociable. 
At such a gathering there was, of course, no introducing, 
and in Cairo, where the residents knew each other intimately, 
there was little need of it. Stella's father was the centre 
of a group of men who were eagerly discussing the Asiut 
election and politics generally. There was a Turkish Pasha 
amongst them, and the most influential lawyer in Cairo. 

Stella left her brother to look after her mother, and 
went off with her lover, but not one word came to her lips 
to say; she walked the whole length of the room in complete 
silence. Her heart was too full of bitterness to speak 
naturally of trivial things ; besides, she could not think 
of anything to say that did not matter. She longed to 
cry out and tell him that she was miserable, that she 
was miserable because she still loved him even though 
he had failed her, that she was sick of the whole world. 
Vernon waited until they were seated under a flowering 
sunt tree, whose luscious scent sweetened the soft night 
air, before he attempted to speak. Bright lanterns, which 
looked like sumptuous tropical flowers, were gently sway- 
ing from the trees in the breeze, and in the distance an 
Arab lover was pouring out his heart to the moon. 

Vernon's arm stole round Stella's waist and his lips 
were pressed to her white throat. Stella was trembling, 
and, although she was not responsive, she did not resist ; 
already her senses were being drugged by the magic of 
his caresses. 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


151 


“ Dearest/" he said, ‘‘ do Iet"s get married and leave 
this beastly place. I"ll take you back to England, where 
you will be courted and adored once more. English 
people are hateful in the East. I can"t think what comes 
over them."" 

She let him kiss her lips, for he had turned her face 
to his, but she said, Don"t, Vernon, please don"t."" 

“ But why ? "" he said. ‘‘ No one can see us here. The 
tree completely hides us."" 

‘‘ Yes, I am your lover when there is no one who can 

2 }} 

‘‘ Oh ! Stella . . . "" he stammered confusedly, ‘‘ you 
don"t want me to kiss you in 'public, do you ? "" 

She was silent. 

“ You"re miserable, darling, out here, where everything 
is wrong. Why don"t you go back to Miss MacNaughtan ? 
— and I"ll change into another regiment and come home 
and marry you."" 

‘‘ This is my home,'' she said slowly. She had drawn 
her face farther from his. 

“ I never feel that it is."" 

‘‘ But you must."" 

Why should I ? I like to think of you as Stella Adair, 
the most beautiful and popular girl in a set of decent 
English people at home . . . aU this sort of thing is upside 
down. . . . It"s like a bad dream ; it"s hateful ! "" 

“ This is how things are,"" she said ; ‘‘ the other was a 
dream."" 

‘‘ But it needn"t be : your mother would let you go home 
to-morrow ; I know she would . . . she"s a dear ; she under- 
stands."" 

“ And you would have me go ‘ home," as you call it ? "" 

“ Why not ? It would only be returning to the people 
who brought you up, to the people who understand you, 
the people for whom you were educated."" 

He kissed her again, and pressed her soft cheek closely 
to his, but Stella roused herself to resist the seduction of 
his passion, to throw off the physical lassitude which his 
near presence always produced in her. In a voice stifled 
with emotion she said : ‘‘ You are wrong ; they are not 
my people ; that is Just the mistake we have both made. 
. . . My people are here ! Girgis Boutros is one of them. I 


152 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


am what you English call a Levantine, I came here to-night 
so that you should know it/" 

Vernon withdrew his caressing hand. “ But you don"t 
care for him — why should you care about leaving him ? 
He doesn"t count, or any of his people/" 

I admire him,"" she said, and I should despise myself 
if I married you and left my people — surely you would 
despise me if I did it ? "" 

“ Dearest, you don"t love me ! What has changed 
you ? "" 

Her only answer- was to lift his hand to her lips and 
kiss it very tenderly, even while the ideal of him she had 
created was suffering rude shocks. She had hoped that 
her words would bring forth the protest that he would 
really love her less if she despised her people, or that he 
would marry her in Cairo to-morrow if she liked, and 
so show the stiff-necked English that her people were his 
people, and that his people were hers. 

But he had no such thought in his mind ... he was 
obsessed with the one idea that if she loved him she could 
leave her detestable relations for his sake, that she could 
cut herself off from the prejudiced society of Cairo and 
live in a country where being a Syrian meant no more to 
the general public (if the woman was rich and charming) 
than being a Turk or a Jew or a Greek. So he said, with 
a self -aggrieved air : “ Go back to England and wait for 
me, dearest ; leave this beastly place — ^you would if you 
really cared for me."" 

Never ! "" she said passionately. Her heart was 
beating wildly, for she believed that she was rejecting 
the one thing that made life sweet to her ; but she would 
be brave. 

‘‘ Darling, why won"t you ? "" 

‘‘ Perhaps if I tell you you won"t understand ; but please 
try to : it is because I should hate you if I went, if I was 
not strong enough to resist . . . "" she pushed away his 
hands . . . meaning his physical attraction . . . her voice 
broke, I should despise 3^ou if you did not hate me for 
going."" As she spoke she knew that she was losing a 
portion of the ideal of him that she had created . . . she 
was conscious that one day she might lose all. 

‘‘ No, I don"t understand,"" he said ; ‘ you would despise^ 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


153 


me if you loved me well enough to do as I ask you to ! All 
this is beyond me. You look at things from such a strange 
point of view."" 

“ Not very strange, dearest. Can"t you understand, can"t 
you see how I should grow to hate you if my love for 
you made me a traitor to my own people, if I left my father 
and my mother and Nicolas because you were ashamed 
to own that you loved a Syrian, if you were afraid to face 
the music ? "" 

Vernon was amazed at her intensity. ‘‘ Who said I 
was afraid ? What have I done ? This sort of thing has 
got on your nerves."" 

Do you wonder if it has ? "" she asked passionately ; 
‘‘ do you wonder if I hate myself for loving a man who 
belongs to the race of people who despise my father — 
my father who is worth a hundred prejudiced Englishmen 
— a man who scorns me in Cairo because his fellow-country- 
men do not think any one who is not British is fit to speak 
to ? . . . It is cruel,"" she said, “ cruel and abominable. I 
hate myself for loving you, but I can"t help it."" 

“ Don"t, darling ! "" he said in a soothing voice. 

“ Oh ! don"t touch me,"" she cried. . . . ‘‘ When ^-oii 
caress me I have no will-power, no individuality, no self- 
respect, and ... I must resist, for to-night I know that 
3^011 share the feelings of the English in Cairo. Something 
tells me that if we had never met in England you would 
never have loved me here . . . you would never have asked 
me to marry you ? "" 

‘‘ W^hy do you say that ? . . . I came to you as soon as I 
could. I had dined with these people : I had to be civil."" 

Stella gave a pitiful laugh. ‘‘You did not tell the lady 
you were with that 3^011 were engaged to me ? "" 

“ There was no occasion to."" 

“ There was the opportunity ! She made a remark 
about me : I heard it. Wouldn"t it have been the natural 
thing to have told her then if you had not been ashamed ? "" 

“SteUa, this is awful . . . nothing has been right since 
I"ve been in Egypt . . . you blame me for all the wrongs 
the English have done to 3^our people. Forget about it 
and be nice, do, dear."" 

“ How can I forget ? "" she said. “ Certainly not until I 
know my true position with you. . . . Are w^e to be openly 


154 


A WIPE OUT OP EGYPT 


engaged ? Are you going to acknowledge me to your 
friends ? . . . Are you going to accept my relations ? . . . 
Or am I to be kissed behind the sunt trees and ignored in 
the drawing-rooms ? 

You're awfully cruel : you've changed completely. 
Are you so anxious for our engagement to be made public ? " 

“ Yes, if you wish me to remain engaged to you in 
private ! " 

“ What do you mean ? " 

“ I mean," she said, “ that if I did what I ought to do 
I should break off my engagement with you unless you 
agree to all I wish." 

‘'Why ? . ; . Por what reason ? . . . I can scarcely believe 
it is you talking. . . . Stella, dearest, why on earth should 
you break with me ? What do you wish me to do ? " 

“ It would be fairer to you, and I suppose I ought to 
marry my cousin Girgis Boutros." 

“ Good Lord, Stella ! . . . What for ? " 

“ Because I could help him in his work for the people. 
Because he would ask me to stay with my people and not 
forsake them ... he would spend his great wealth on 
educating and raising the position of the Christians in 
Egypt." 

“ But why should you be made the sacrifice ? " 

“ Because he loves me, and surely I have been born 
and educated for some reason . . . for some purpose other 
than to be an object of pity to the English. It must have 
been that I was to help him to carry on his work. . . . 
Heavens ! " she said, with a hopeless sigh, “ if only I 
could ..." she stopped. 

“ If only you could what ? " 

“ Porget myself. ... If only I could forget that you 
exist, if only I had never known your love." 

“ You'll forget me all right," he said bitterly. “ Girgis 
is very wealthy ! " 

“ How cruel ! " 

“ Well, I think it's you who are being cruel ; you're 
chucking me for a richer man." 

“ Por one who does not despise me ; for one who does 
not ask me to forsake my people ; for one who would be 
proud to tell every one in Cairo to-morrow that I am his 
promised wife." 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


155 


‘‘ And who said I wouldn't ? " 

Would you ? Will you introduce me to-night as your 
fiancee ? " 

Of course, darling, if you wish it ; but to whom ? " 

“ To any one." 

“ I don't know people intimately here. . . . They are all 
the merest acquaintances ; they don't even know I'm 
engaged : it would seem rather odd." 

His arm stole round her because her face had softened, 
and she had not resisted the caressing shoulder as he 
leaned against her. As a woman she was so attractive 
that he could not resist her. It seemed impossible that any 
community of cultivated people could treat her as a social 
outcast ; yet he had only to take her back to the drawing- 
room to realize that such was the case, and Stella insisted 
upon their going back. She wished to return, because 
she found herself becoming weaker and weaker under 
the magic of hands and the passion of lips, and she knew 
that neither her heart nor her pride were satisfied, and 
she was determined that her self-respect and pride should 
master her physical weakness. As she rose to her feet, 
she held out her hands imploringly. Vernon took them 
eagerly in his. 

‘‘ Dearest," she said, we need never speak of all this 
again : we need never mind what people think if only you 
will accept my people as your people ... if you will 
never ask me to leave them. . . ." She paused. ‘‘ As a 
soldier's wife, of course, I should naturally go with you to 
the uttermost ends of the earth. . . . But I will never 
go anywhere for the sake of getting away from the people 
I belong to." 

“ And you will not marry Girgis Boutros ? 

“ I will never marry him . . . unless . . 

Unless what ? " 

Unless you fail me." 

‘‘ In what way ? " 

By scorning my people, by doing nothing to help 
me to make their position less undignified, by keeping 
your eyes shut to the injustice of the English." 

Steps close at hand prevented Vernon answering her, 
and the next moment Nicolas and Michael Ireton were 
standing beside them. Nicolas hesitated and was turning 


156 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


away when he saw who it was they had interrupted, but 
Stella begged him to come back. Nicolas, don't go ! 
May I join you ? . . . Vernon has to return to the friends 
he came with." 

The look of pleasure and something deeper which had 
lit up Michael Ireton's face when he saw Stella was not 
lost upon Vernon, whose mind was instantly filled with 
jealousy. He did not want to leave her with this man who, 
he knew, appealed to the intellectual side of her nature so 
strongly . . . nor did he particularly wish to take her 
back to the reception room, where he might have to face 
the difficulty of meeting his hostess and introducing Stella. 
He knew perfectly well that Mrs. Bostock would not be 
nice to the girl, the more so because Stella was much 
better dressed than her own daughter, whom Vernon 
imagined, though he was not vain, to have been designedly 
thrown in his way upon the last two or three occasions upon 
which they had met. Vernon had only been three weeks 
in Cairo, and he had already seen the same set of people 
a good many times at different social functions. He liked 
the girl with her pink skin and blue eyes ; her love of out- 
door games and sport appealed to him : but he had no 
desire to be drawn into a flirtation with her. As Stella 
had as much as given him his dismissal, he was upon the 
point of leaving them, when she said to him in a persuasive 
voice : Vernon, will you come to-morrow morning and 
see some of the old Coptic churches ? Mr. Ireton would 
like to come with us." 

Vernon detested sight-seeing with all his soul, but he 
was too jealous of the man to let Stella go about alone 
with him, so he accepted the invitation. “ I hope you 
don't mind vermin," he said to Mr. Ireton. Some people 
I met out at dinner last night told me that these old 
churches are alive with all sorts of insects : one girl had 
hysterics when she got home and found the worst of all 
things on her blouse, within an inch of her hair." 

I do mind them very much," Mr. Ireton said : they 
spoil a very great deal of the pleasure of sight-seeing 
in the East, but clothes will burn and I will wash, and 
these old churches are quite unique, both in point of archi- 
tecture and real beauty. I must see them ; it is worse 
for ladies. What will you do. Miss Lckejian ? " 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


157 


“ I'll put on things that will wash when I get home . . , 
my maid will examine them first, for washing doesn't kill 
the worst kind — do you remember what Robbie Burns 
said about them ? I suppose they have not changed since 
his day ; indeed, they often come home with the washing." 

‘‘ Ye gods," Vernon said, ‘‘ how horrible ! Where is 
one safe ? " 

Never, if you go in public conveyances or rub shoulders 
with the people in the bazaars." 

‘‘ But I thought Mohammedans were clean : they wash 
before praying ? " 

“ Not the women." 

“ And the Copts ? " 

“ They are no better ... for most of their customs 
are just the same, and you must remember that this 
climate engenders these things." 

Thank God for England," Vernon said ; ‘‘ I'd rather 
have its rain and grey skies than the filth and sunshine 
of the East." 

He turned to go. 

‘‘ Then you'll call for me at nine o'clock to-morrow 
morning," Stella said ; ‘‘ it will be on your way ... it 
gets too hot later on." 

As he left them Mr. Ireton said, ‘‘ Oriental things don't 
appeal to him very much, do they ? He's of too British 
a turn of mind." 

Nicolas wondered if he had any turn of mind at all, but 
he did not say so ... he knew that Vernon had brains of 
the kind which could absorb certain subjects if they 
interested him, but he doubted very much if he had 
a mind which ‘‘ thought " for itself upon any subject 
whatsoever. It seemed to him to consist of accepted 
principles and prejudices. 

For a little while they walked about the grounds, while 
Michael Ireton told them what he had been doing since 
they had parted in Luxor. He was enchanted with Abydos, 
and told Stella a great deal about the expectations of the 
excavating party there. Stella had just had time to see 
the glorious reliefs on the white walls of the temple on her 
way back from Luxor : the temple of Abydos had excited 
her imagination more and depressed her less than any 
other spot in Egypt, for even if the tomb of Osiris should 


158 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


never be discovered there, it is an historical fact that for 
endless centuries devout Egyptians believed that his heart 
was buried at Abydos, and endeavoured by every means 
in their power to secure a burial site as close to his re- 
puted shrine as possible. Apart from the romance of 
Osiris's tomb, the great temple of Abydos is unlike any 
other building in Egypt. Its very name is suggestive of 
its peculiar charm and delicate beauty. 

SteUa said that she envied the professor's Avife, who lived 
with her husband in his camp and helped him in his work 
there. Michael Ireton looked at Nicolas, who under- 
stood the remark his eyes conveyed that if she longed 
to be the wife of a man Avhose whole existence was given 
over to archaeological research, hoAv could she be satisfied 
with Vernon, whose real interests in life were polo and golf ? 

“ Would you be contented to live her life ? " he said. 
‘‘ You wouldn't need any pretty clothes — you would have 
to do without all luxuries : camp life at Abydos is very 
severe." 

‘‘ I believe that Stella could do vdthout them," Nicolas 
said, “ better than she could do without intellectual in- 
terests and intelligent companionship. At the same time, 
I think her nervous system would not stand the strain. 
She loves pretty clothes and pretty surroundings, but they 
don't make up her life. I think half her pretty frocks 
are worn to please me." 

Stella thanked him with her eyes, for he had said 
what was practically true. ‘‘ These pretty things help to 
make my rather stupid life more exciting," she said . . . 
“ but they really mean nothing : if I could go off to-morrow 
into the desert with Nicolas ... or with any one who 
]oved it as Nicolas does, I would leave them all behind me 
gladly." 

“ I believe you would," Michael Ireton said. “ To me all 
this sort of thing seems awfully vapid after you have been 
in camp. Our evenings used to be delightful . . . such 
talks . . . such arguments . . . such theories, all relating 
to things which had their place in the world thousands of 
years ago." As he spoke he caught Stella's glowing eyes, 
her ardent smile. 

“ And yet I often think," Nicolas said, “ that we are 
just making history, as the ancients made it ; that what 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


159 


we are doing to-day may prove full of interest to the 
people who are going to live a thousand years after us. 
We think it is very thrilling to handle a thing of every- 
day use which was made two thousand years ago or more, 
but it was only a plate or a teacup to the people then, 
just as these modern things are to us. Probably the 
majority of people lived as profitless lives as we do ; it was 
only the poor who starved and the rich who ruled, that 
dealt with the strenuous things of life.'" 

The elemental principles never change," Michael Ireton 
said : ‘‘ there is the same loving and hating and fighting 
and striving going on all round us as there was in the 
days when the first person of the sacred Trinity worshipped 
by men was Osiris. But I've a proposal to make to you." 
He had stopped suddenly, and strained his ear to listen. 
‘‘ Aren't you tired of all this ? " — ^he pointed to the brightly 
lighted house and to the mass of moving figures. “ I 
know a wealthy Arab who is giving a party on board his 
dahabeah to-night — it's lying just off Roda Island. If 
your sister had her wraps, we could get into a small boat 
and drift down the river and hear the music. The illumina- 
tions will be worth seeing." 

Nicolas hesitated. 

“ I wouldn't ask you," he said, if I didn't know it was 
going to be something very special. He's got a famous 
tenor on board, and there is to be a whole fiotiUa of boats, 
illuminated : he's entertaining a great swell from Persia. 
He's giving a series of entertainments, intellectual and 
otherwise, and I had the honour of being his guest last 
night. I never experienced anything so delightful before. 
The boat was a perfect fairyland of fiowers and priceless 
embroideries, and there were story-tellers engaged, and 
poets, who recited their parts in splendid costumes. The 
whole thing was classical." 

Stella's eyes glowed. ‘‘ I'd love to go," she said, “ but 
I wish we could go on board. . . . How did you get to 
know him ? I've often heard that the wealthy Arabs give 
exquisite entertainments. They are devoted to poetry 
and to classical recitations." 

‘‘ I got to know him through a Frenchman who ignores 
the prejudices of Cairo and makes friends with all the 
most cultivated Arabs ... he says he'd die of ennui 


160 


A WIPE OUT OP EGYPT 


out here if he depended on the society of Europeans ; 
their parties are deadly affairs/' 

“ Probably the Europeans think he’s half a native because 
he isn’t English,” Stella said laughingly, and ignore him.” 

“ Probably,” Michael Ireton said, “ but who cares ! 
He took me there last night. I wish you could have been 
with me ” — he addressed Nicolas — ‘‘ it really was perfect ; 
and my host had such charming manners.” 

‘‘ I wish I could,” he said, “ but with my mother and 
Stella to consider I can’t . . . though I often think that 
that’s the only side of life worth anything out here. . . . 
I tried it . . . when Stella was at school, but I found 
it difficult when I wanted to return their hospitality : I 
couldn’t ask them to my home.” 

‘‘ I see,” Michael Ireton said, and yet he didn’t see, for 
he could not understand why the Lekejians, who did not 
really know the English people in Cairo, thought it worth 
while to mind what they thought or said. 

But he was reckoning without Stella’s father, who 
would not allow Mussulmans to come to his house as 
intimates. He himself knew many of them as one man 
knows another, and he liked them exceedingly for many 
reasons, but he would not countenance the idea of per- 
mitting them to know his wife and daughter in their home 
life. He knew their minds too well, and their opinion of 
women who lived in the free manner of Western w^omen, 
as Stella did. He knew many Copts wlio lived almost 
like Mussulmans (apart from the fact that, being nominally 
Christian, they were by their Church allowed only one 
wife), yet he considered them many degrees better in their 
“ mental attitude ” towards women than Mussulmans. 

Stella and her mother visited very formally a few 
Mohammedan women of high rank, whose husbands 
were westernized enough to keep only one wife. Mr. 
Lekejian would not permit them to go to any harem 
where the husband had more. Stella thought it was 
rather foolish, as she knew quite well that the real reason 
for them having only one wife w^as because they were 
not wealthy enough to give the wives the dowry they 
could claim by law if they were divorced because their 
husbands were tired of them, and their husbands would not 
care to support them in their harems for no purpose. It 


A WIPE OUT OF EGYPT 


161 


was easier, as they said, to do as the European men did — 
have only one wife in their homes, but as many mistresses 
outside as they chose, for they would expect no dowry when 
their little day was over. Like many other excellent 
Christians, Mr. Lekejian preferred to live like the ostrich : 
he tried to believe that the Egyptian Mussulman when 
he has only one wife is helping to raise the standard of 
Eastern morality, that he is doing it in the cause of 
morality, not of necessity, because the good old days of 
wealth by bribery and corruption have ended, and only 
a few Egyptians can to-day afford to keep up the old 
customs of the harem. 

And so to Stella and her mother the inner life of the 
Mohammedan women was almost as much a sealed book 
as it was to the ordinary English resident. 

When Nicolas returned with Stella's cloak he looked a 
little disturbed. I think we ought not to go, dear," 
he said. “ Father has gone home — he may have to leave 
for Asiut to-night — ^and mother is quite alone waiting 
for us." 

“ Why has father gone ? . . . Has any thing happened ? " 

‘‘ There has been a disturbance at Asiut. Amin Hamdulla 
(the Mohammedan) has been elected Mudir ; some of the 
English have been badly knocked about by the Copts, 
who think they ought to have had their support at the 
election. Father has gone to his office to write a leader on 
the subject." 

Stella looked grave. She was thinking of Girgis — how 
angry he would be. The Copt was really a first-class man,- 
she was sorry for his defeat ; at the same time, she did not 
herself believe that he coaid have filled the post of Mudir 
as well as a good Mohammedan. 

She turned to Michael Ireton and said, “ We mustn't 
stay — please take me back to mother. We will go home. 
Nicolas, will you tell Vernon ? " 

They had almost reached the lighted rooms, and could 
hear the babble of voices, before either Michael Ireton or 
Stella spoke. Stella was unaware that she had been silent. 

I wonder if you realize how very interesting all this 
is," he said. 

“All what ? " she asked . . . “that . . . do you mean ? " 
She pointed her hand in scorn to the lighted rooms. 

11 


162 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


“ Good heavens ! no ; I mean your life outside of all this 
. . . you are not going to care about this . . he took 
her hand, “ you are so much above it, so much too good 
for it, dear child ; promise me you will realize how little 
it matters and ignore it/' 

“ How can I ? she said. Her hand remained in his, 
the friendship of it helped her. 

“ Why can't you ? " he asked. . . . ‘' You don't really 
care about it ; when you analyse it you know it's worth- 
less." 

“ Vernon belongs to this life," she said ; I loved him 
before I knew anything about it." 

“ I wonder if you know what love means ? " He looked 
into her eyes very earnestly. 

“ Wliy do you say that ? I am not a child." 

He smiled. “ Wliat has that to do with it ? " he said. 
“ Lots of people have lived to be seventy, and have been 
married tvice, and never knovn what love meant." 

She looked at him almost sadly. “ How is one to 
know ? " she said. 

He did not answer — ^he was not listening ; he was thinking 
of what he wished to tell her. “ May I confess something 
about myself," he asked abruptly, “ something I would 
like you to know ? " 

She nodded her head. 

‘‘ WeU, it is just this : when I first saw you I knew that I 
could love you madly if I might let myself, and I would 
have let myseK if you had not told me that you were 
engaged to ^Ir. Thorpe. I would have tried to make you 
love me madly too, and, do you know, sometimes I have 
thought that I could have managed it ; but I am teaching 
myself to look upon you in a perfectly different way — I 
am taking up our friendship from a purely intellectual 
standpoint." 

SteUa's heart was beating so quickly that she could 
scarcely speak, yet she managed to whisper, “ Oh, thank 
you, thank you ; I want your friendship." 

“ As I have accepted the fact that you can never be my 
wife, let me try to be your dearest friend, a friend who will 
never fail you." 

“ I don't know what to say," she said ; what can I say ? 
I never thought . . ." she paused. “ Oh ! but you could 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 163 

never have married me ; you think you would, but you 
wouldn't/^ 

“ I would have married you,"" he said roughly. ‘‘ God 
knows I would marry you to-morrow if I might, and 
worship every inch of you, body and soul."" He held her 
hand more closely in both of his. 

“ Hush ! "" she said. “ Perhaps I ought not to let you say 
all this, but . . ."" her voice broke, “ I want your friendship, 
I want your . . ."" she raised her eyes to his, ‘‘ your under- 
standing ; but is it right ? "" She was thinking of Vernon"s 
jealousy. 

‘‘ Why not ? "" he said. ‘‘ I know you are engaged, I know 
I am too late even to try to make you feel for me as I feel 
for you."" He smiled. “ How I should have loved to have 
tried, little girl ! I have often dreamt that I have tried and 
succeeded : you have loved me in my dreams, SteUa "" — he 
spoke softly — “ loved me as I know you are capable of 
loving ; but I am no love-sick boy, I am man enough to act 
honourably if you vdQ aUow me to be your trusted friend."" 

She looked troubled. Vernon"s love for her seemed lik*e 
a boy"s compared to this man"s : she was glad they had 
almost crossed the threshold of the open vdndow, so that 
she was spared the difficulty of ans^vering him. 

‘‘ Before we go m let me assure you,"" he said, that I 
will never allude to my feelings for you again — they are 
purely my own afiPair, they need never trouble you : that is 
the difference between a man and a boy,"" he said ; we 
can master our feelings, we can rely upon our seff-control. 
The subject of love is dead between us, it is goilig to be 
friendship in the future — and you can trust me ? You 
never suspected ? "" 

She evaded a direct denial. ‘‘ The thought that you care 
for me is very dear to me ; perhaps it shouldn"t be, but 
I can"t help it ... I felt so despised ... so rejected . . . 
such an alien."" 

“ Good God ! "" he said, but he checked himself : I am 
glad you can feel for me like that ; and remember that I 
am not offering you my friendship for a day or a week or a 
year, I am offering it for always ... if the day should ever 
come when you should need it you have only to send for 
me. . . . Remember that a man loves to serve the woman 
he adores, if it is only as a friend."" 


1(14 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


“ Now say good-bye/^ she said, with smiling tearfulness, 
for she saw Nicolas coming with her mother towards her. 

“ Good-bye, Hadassah,"" he said. He had used her father's 
name for her, to show her that her people would have been 
his people. “ Remember that this is to make no difference." 
With her hand in his he waited for her answer. . . . ^‘ No 
difference ? " he repeated. “ Promise me that." 

‘‘ No difference," she said, and she thought that she 
spoke the truth ; but it was not the truth, for her eyes 
could no longer look into his — that was the difference. 

“ I only wanted you to know," he said. 

‘‘ And I understand why you wanted me to know," she 
said ; “ good-bye, and thank you. Ma as-saldmah Ikattar 
Alldh KMrak” she repeated the words in Arabic. 

He answered her back in Arabic, L&tak sa*idah essaldm 
alikum (Good-night — peace be on you ! )." 


CHAPTER XVII 


On arriving home there were two things which troubled 
Stella's peace of mind and served to throw into the back- 
ground all that Michael Ireton had said to her, although in 
a curious way what he had asked her to forget remained 
with her as a new solace for all her troubles. 

The news that her father had suddenly left Cairo for 
Asiut caused her an anxiety which she dared not show her 
mother, for fear of unnecessarily alarming her, for Girgis 
Boutros had often warned her that her father had many 
bitter enemies amongst the most discontented faction of 
the Copts, on account of the very English views he had 
expressed in his leading articles in the “ El Watan " — the 
important Christian paper, written in Arabic, which sup- 
ported the British policy in Egypt. Nicolas Lekejian was, 
to all intents and purposes, the voice of the paper. 

Amongst the few Copts who had thrown in their lot with 
the Moslem party who were the ringleaders of the most 
advanced anti-English sect, Mr. Lekejian was looked upon 
as a traitor to the cause of Egypt's liberation and self- 
government. He was detested equally by the Egyptian 
Christian and the Moslem fanatic. He had used his power 
in the press to suppress the seditious literature which filled 
the native papers and had warned the rebellious Copts 
that in joining forces with the Moslem leaders of the 
revolutionary party they were putting the halters round 
their own necks. He urged them to consider what the 
inevitable result would be if they assisted in making the 
English evacuate Egypt — their own ejection would most 
certainly follow, for to the Mohammedan any means is 
justified by the end in the matter of religion ; a Moslem 
Government would not hesitate to rend in pieces the less 
powerful Christians who had assisted them in driving out 
their fellow-unbelievers from the land. 


165 


166 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


Girgis had often spoken to Stella of her father’s fearless 
attitude towards the pan-Islamic body and how he had 
more than once felt anxious for his safety on the occasion 
of religious festivals in Cairo, when Islamic fanaticism is 
fanned to hysterical iiTesponsibility. Upon learning of the 
disturbances at Asiut her father had hurried off to the 
scene of action, for, besides owning a great deal of property 
in the town, which brought him in a heavy rent-roll, he 
was one of the governing body of the city hospital, and 
held various honorary posts in charitable institutions in the 
neighbourhood. Like many other wealthy Syrians, he had 
invested his money in landed property when it was of 
little value, before English rule had brought commercial 
safety and prosperity to Egypt. The land he had purchased 
in Caffo for almost a song was now of immense value. 
But it was not for personal reasons that he went to Asiut, 
but to do what he could to bring reason to the minds of 
the incensed Christians. The disturbances in Asiut were 
entirely Christian in character ; the Mohammedans were, of 
course, only too weU pleased to have successfully carried 
out their work in fanning the spirit of discontent among 
the Copts' against the English Government, but on this 
occasion they themselves naturally had no injustice to 
complain of, for it was a Mohammedan who had been 
elected to the post of Mudir. 

Stella was more than anxious for her father’s safety. The 
horrible murder of Boutros Pasha was still very fresh in 
her mind, and, added to her fears for her father, there was 
another difficulty which had suddenly thrust itself upon her 
overstrained nertes — ^the evening post had brought a 
letter from Nancy Thorpe, offering herself on a visit for 
a few weeks to the Lekejians. She had never been in 
Egypt, and as her brother Vernon was there, her aunt, with 
whom she lived, had consented to let her visit Stella if it 
was convenient for ^Irs. Lekejian to have her. Stella’s 
mind had arrived at a state of impasse ! Vliat was she 
to do ? She was perfectly well aware of the fact that 
Vernon would very much prefer that his sister should 
never know the true position SteUa and her relatives held 
in Cairo, and she had to confess to herself the fact that 
she also would be glad if little Nancy never knew. It was 
out of the question to allow her to come to Cairo unless 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


167 


she understood exactly what she was coming to. Although 
she would have preferred that Nancy should not come, she 
also knew that she would be furious if Vernon expressed 
any objection to her coming. It w^as unreasoning and 
illogical, but it was true, nevertheless, and the point re- 
mained indisputable, because its root lay buried in her 
pride and seK-respect. If he did object to Nancy's visit 
her o^vn engagement to him must come to an end. At 
the very possibility of his objecting her spirit rose in revolt 
... he must not ... he dare not ! Then suddenly there 
flashed into her mind the picture of English Nancy, with 
her rose-leaf face and Saxon fairness, contrasted with Girgis 
Boutros, with his features cut in granite and his crisp hair 
as black as the wigs of the Egyptian Pharaohs. Would 
Vernon allow his sister to be seen with a native ? Would 
Girgis complicate her difficulties by ceasing to love herself 
and transferring his devotion to Nancy ? 

When IVIrs. Lekejian said good-night to her daughter 
she did not allude to their evening spent at the British 
Agency ; her husband's abrupt departure for Asiut gave 
her the opportunity for ignoring it. She had seen Stella 
open Nancy's letter : the girl's expression puzzled her as 
she read it . . . she wondered what it contained. As a rule 
Stella handed over Nancy's letters for her to read ; to- 
night her daughter folded the letter up and slowly replaced 
it in its envelope, saying as she did so, ‘‘ Good-night, mother 
dearest ; I think I shall go to bed . . . I'm so very tired." 

‘‘ Good-night, my darling." Mrs. Lekejian kissed her 
daughter tenderly on both cheeks. She almost opened the 
subject of the evening's entertainment, but she refrained ; 
Stella's expression forbade any confession of the sympathy 
she felt for her. Mrs. Lekejian knew that the party had 
tried her daughter's nerves almost to breaking-point, even 
though she had no idea that Michael Ireton had spoken 
of his love to her. Mrs. Lekejian belonged to the type of 
women, and they are many, who understand men like 
Vernon Thorpe better than men like Michael Ireton. If 
she had lived in England all her life and had never been 
exposed to the prejudices and narrow-mindedness of men 
of Vernon's kind, she w^ould have admhed him imgrudgingly, 
she would have found his nature perfectly in sympathy 
with her own . . . wdth Michael she would never have bad 


168 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


the Scame amount of sympath3\ The seriousness of his 
stronger character made her a little shy with him, whereas 
it was the very seriousness in his nature which gave Stella 
the feeling of rest in his presence, the feeling of security 
which she so much needed. She had inherited very little 
of the youthful simplicity of her mother's character, 
although she could be as gay and light-hearted as a child 
when occasion offered. A perpetually gay and unserious 
nature bored her to distraction, though she did not know it. 
In many respects she was years older than her mother, 
whose simplicity of character made her extremely lovable, 
and gave her an air of charming youthfulness. \^dien 
Mrs. Lekejian left the room, and Stella at last found herself 
alone, she opened Nancy's letter and re-read it slowly 
through : 

“ My dearest Stella, 

‘‘ The Littlejohns have invited me to go to Egypt 
with them at the end of January. May I spend a week 
with you before we start on our trjp up the Nile, that is 
to say if you can conveniently have me ? If you can't, 
please say so, and I will stay with you, if I may, when 
we return from Assouan. By the way, when will it get too 
hot for Assouan ? And do tell me what sort of clothes I shall 
want for the Nile voyage. Oh, I forgot ! I shan't have 
time to get your answer by post, so will you send me a 
telegram just to say ‘yes or no.' I shall quite understand 
if you can't have me just now. Isn't it ripping for me, 
and won't it be lovely seeing you so soon ! I am bursting 
with excitement. We have heard very little from Vernon 
lately — I suppose he thinks he's busy ; he will be surprised ! 
How useful he'll be at dances ! I've got some ducky party 
frocks. I'm beginning to read up books about Egypt, but 
I can't make head or tail of the awful gods, and as for the 
cartouches. ... I shall like the desert far better than the 
temples and museums, I'm sure. 

“ Now good-b^^e, dear girl ; some one is waiting to post 
this. I do hope you can have me ! 

“ Yours in great glee, 

“ Nancy. 

“ P.S, — It"s aU been so sudden that I can't believe it's 
true." 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


169 


Tears came into Stella's eyes as she folded up the letter. 
The gay and light-hearted Nancy who adored her, of what 
use would her dance-frocks be ? She belonged to the very 
sort of people who, if they had come out to Egypt as 
strangers, would have classed her, Stella, as ‘‘ Native," as 
an “ impossible Levantine ! " She knew it and almost 
hated the girl for it, yet she felt sure that if she allowed 
Nancy to visit her the girl would be loyal and true 
to her, and that she would refuse to know any of the 
English residents who had ignored herself and her people. 
In the morning she would have to tell Vernon what Nancy’s 
letter contained. She wondered what the first thing would 
be that he would say ? . . . how he would look ? One thing 
Stella was determined upon, and that was that she would 
not put Nancy off with excuses, that she would not fall in 
with Vernon’s idea, the idea she was so sure that he would 
express, of making some excuse to stop her coming, and 
getting married before the next Cairo season and going 
home ; in this way Nancy and his people need never 
know the position Stella held in Cairo. Stella laughed 
bitterly to herself. “ It’s a merciful thing that Syrians are 
not coloured people," she said to herself, “ though they 
might well be, for the social stigma that is flung at them, 
or I might have a black bab}^ and that would give the 
secret away. ..." But there must be no secret ; her people 
were as good as the Thorpes any day, and intellectually 
she knew that they were their superiors. It was not until 
long after the late night-noises had died down, the mysteri- 
ous noises of an Oriental land, and stillness reigned over 
the city of a hundred minarets and over the desert tombs 
of the Caliphs, that Stella went to bed ; she had sat by 
her window lost in a mirage of thought. Scenes forced 
themselves upon her mind like pictures in a kaleidoscope, 
pictures which showed her many things which were only 
known to her subconscious self. 

In the mirage of her brain was also the knowledge of 
Michael Ireton’s confession that he loved her ; it gave her 
an indescribable and delicious pleasure, for there is no 
tender-hearted woman living who does not derive comfort 
and satisfaction from the reflection that she has made 
a strong man love her — strong intellectually as w^ell as 
physically. Across her vision had drifted the wonder of 


170 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


how she would have felt towards him if he had tried to 
make her love him madly, as he had said . . . how she would 
have felt towards him if she had never met Vernon ? 

K only the two men could be made into one, what an 
ideal combination they would make ! Stella allowed her 
“ wonderings to take no more definite form than this. 

The first mueddin had sounded before she fell asleep, 
and in her dreams it was not Vernon who was her hero 
of romance, it Avas not his arms that held her ; it was not 
his voice that spoke breathless words of love ; they were 
not his kisses that made her feel a queen amongst women 
once more ! She woke with a start, for in her dreams 
Nancy was in Cairo, and had come into the draAAung-room 
when iMichael Ireton's arms were roimd her and Michael 
Ireton's lips were pressed against her OAvn. A flame of 
shame burned in Stella's being, she was revolting to herself, 
and yet somehow a little regret lay at the back of her 
mind, a little unconscious regret that things were only 
as they had been the night before ! 

VTien her Coptic maid brought her early cup of tea there 
was a note on the tray in Michael Ireton's handwriting. 
She opened it hurriedly. What could he have to say ? 

“ Dear Hadassah, 

“ I saw your brother late last night, after he had 
taken you home. I hear that you are anxious for your 
father's safety in Asiut, so I am going there this morning. 
I knoAV I can't do much, but I aauU keep you informed of 
your father's safety, Avhich may be of some comfort to 
you. 

“ We can do the Coptic churches together another time, 
and I believe Mr. Thorpe avuII be just as well pleased as I 
should be, under the same circumstances, if I am not there. 
God bless you, Hadassah, and don't forget that I am your 
friend for always. ‘‘ Michael Ireton." 

Stella felt quite overcome with the news. Michael had 
gone to Asiut because her father was there . . . here was 
kindness indeed ! But if there AA^as any real trouble in 
Asiut, Avould he be allowed to stay in the city ? and if he 
was, AA^ould he not also be in danger ? The feeling Avould 
be very strong against all foreigners, for as Asiut is almost 
completely a Coptic city, the Mohammedan element would 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


171 


be largely outbalanced. Besides, it would suit the Nation- 
alist party very well to allow the Copts to treat the foreign 
Christians as insultingly as they pleased. 

Stella did not know exactly what her feelings on the 
subject were : had MichaePs going relieved her mind, or 
had it only added one more anxiety to the many ? 

She slipped on her bedroom-gown and went to her 
mother's room. When her mother answered the gentle 
knock, she was little prepared to see her daughter's large 
eyes looking at her from a very pale face. ‘‘ Come in, 
dearest," she said. ‘‘ What news has the post brought 
you ? " She saw Michael Ireton's letter in her daughter's 
hand. 

‘‘ May I get into bed with you, mum dear, and I'll tell 
you ? 

Mrs. Lekejian opened up the bed-clothes and made a 
place for her daughter by her side. Since the days when 
Stella had spent her long holidays with her mother, and 
had been allowed to get into bed with her in the mornings, 
she had never lain there. Something of the old feeling 
came back to them both. Stella felt like a little child ; her 
mother was her comforter and protector once more. 

“ Mother," she said, after a moment's silence, “ Mr. 
Ireton has gone to Asiut this morning." 

Mrs. Lekejian looked at her daughter with inquiring 
eyes. Stella's remark needed an explanation. 

‘‘ He thought we might be worrying about father. He 
went on his account." 

‘‘ How kind of him ! " Something in Stella's eyes em- 
barrassed her mother. 

“He is the kindest thing I ever knew ; there never 
was any one so kind ..." she handed her mother the 
note she had received from Michael. Sirs. Lekejian read it. 

“ SteUa ! " 

Tlieir eyes met for one moment, then Stella's dropped. 
She could not speak to her mother of this man's love for 
her, for had he not said that she was to forget it, that he 
had conquered it, that he was from henceforth to be only 
her friend ? His going to Asiut was done out of the spirit 
of friendship, not of love. . . . 

“ I have something else to say to you, mother, v/hich 
will surprise you. Nancy wants to pay us a visit — she is 


172 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


coming out to Egypt directly. She asks me to wire to her 
if you can take her. . . 

There was a pause. 

“ Of course we can take her, dearest."" Mrs. Lekejian"s 
voice trembled a little, and there was silence again. 

‘‘ Mother,"" Stella said — she was forcing herself to speak 
— “ if Vernon shouldn"t want her to come ? "" 

]\Irs. Lekejian did not speak. She left the next step for 
her daughter, and in the silence mother and daughter 
heard the quicker beating of each of their hearts. 

“ I must tell Vernon that she wants to come, and if 
he should object . . ."" Stella"s voice died away, she pulled 
the bed-clothes over her face. . . . ‘‘ Oh, mother ! "" 

The next moment IMrs. Lekejian"s arms were round her, 
she was holding her child very closely to her. “My dearest,"" 
she said. “ Oh, my dearest ! I sometimes wish I had never 
been born. What have I done ? what have I done ? "" 

“ Hush, mother, don"t ! It"s no one"s fault, it"s some- 
thing far beyond human blame."" For a little time they 
held each other very closely. Arms of love were what 
Stella needed at the moment. She was not crying, she 
was merely sighing like a weary child. 

“ We may be mistaken, darling. Perhaps Vernon will 
be glad that Nancy is coming ; we mustn"t blame him 
before we know."" 

“ Perhaps not, mum. . . ."" Stella roused herself. “ He 
may not . . . but if he objects, he must remember that 
between him and my people there is no choice."" 

“ Oh, Stella ! "" ])^s. Lekejian"s eyes filled with tears. 

She did not blame her daughter, for she knew what her 
feelings must be towards a race of people with whom she 
had little in common, and she remembered how she herself 
had renounced her own people for her husband ; but she 
did not know her daughter, and if she did, she had not 
reckoned with the Irish pride that had descended to her 
through her own blood ; she did not realize her unswerving 
allegiance to her own flesh and blood. 

“ I mean, mother, that if my people are not to be Ver- 
non "s ... if he objects to Nancy entering Cairene society 
under your chaperonage from father"s roof, I will never 
become his wife."" 

A cry of pity burst from her mother"s lips. “ But you 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 173 

love him, Stella ! . . . Oh, my child, my child ! Bewilder- 
ment and dismay filled her. 

‘‘ I love him and hate him, mother \” 

“ Has he ever said anything, anything about 
He wishes me to go to England and wait there until 
he comes home . . . then he will marry me ! '' 

“ But could you not, dearest ? . . . I can't bear to see 
you suffer. ... He may be wise, he may be considering 
your happiness, not his own feelings." 

A cry was torn from Stella's heart. She had risen to go 
to her own room, but she flung herself across her mother's 
bed in a passion of weeping. . . . “ Don't, mother, don't 
tempt me, don't be like Vernon — I can't bear it : the half 
of me that he owns can't stand the temptation, but it's 
the lower half of me ! . . . The other half, which he doesn't 
know and can never know, and won't even try to under- 
stand, won't allow me to be a traitor to my people, to 
my father, to you, to Nicolas. It won't allow me to humble 
my head in the dust for the sake of his love. ..." She 
stopped ; her eyes sought her mother's. . . . ‘‘ Oh ! pray 
God, mother, that the other half won't win." 

Her mother could not speak, for the thoughts that 
filled her mind must never cross her lips, they must not 
be spoken even to her own child. She had not lived in 
Cairo and mixed in the strange society of European- 
Orientals for twenty years without having learnt some- 
thing of their true natures, but her love for her husband 
had never allowed her to utter one word of her real feeling 
towards them. Even Nicolas and Stella never guessed 
the quiet self-restraint and power which lay behind their 
mother's seemingly simple character. They often won- 
dered to themselves how much or how little she had 
suffered when she first realized her position in Cairo, or 
how far her love for her husband had outweighed all 
other matters and made her oblivious of her really friendless 
condition. They were lovers now just as much as they 
ever had been, of that there was little doubt in Stella's 
mind ; she envied her mother. 

After her outburst of weeping she became perfectly 
self-possessed. “ I am making a mountain out of nothing," 
she said; “please forget how stupid I've been. Vernon's 
coming for me at nine o'clock, so I must hurry." 


174 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


“ Wliat are you going to do ? 

“ We were going to see some Coptic churches together/' 
“ Why do you say you were ? Are you not ? " 

“ Because Mr. Ireton was coming too ... in fact he 
and I had planned to do them together, and then I asked 
Vernon to come with us." 

‘‘ He won't enjoy them, will he ? " 

“ But I shall." Stella smiled. It's no use allowing 
him to think that I'm always going to do only the things 
he likes, mother, is it ? " 

‘‘ Not a bit, dear, if you will enjoy it." 

‘‘ I should not enjoy not doing them, because that 
would be doing just what I try so hard not to do." 

‘‘ What is that, dear ? " 

“ Giving in to him on every point when he is there to 
urge it . , . and persuading myself that I am going to be 
so strong-minded when I'm by myself." 

‘‘ The old-fashioned woman always did give in, dear. 
. . . Do you think they were any the unhappier for it ? " 

‘‘ So did the harem woman, mother, because she was 
neglected if she didn't." 

“ Why, dearest ! " Tears sprang, like summer rain, 
into Mrs. Lekejian's eyes. 

Stella's arms went round her. “ Mum, dear, I didn't 
mean anything . . . really, I didn't, only I want to stamp 
right out of my nature all the elements of the Eastern 
woman's attitude tov^-ards men, and I sometimes think 
that my love for Vernon is primitive and Eastern. ... It 
has nothing to do with my intellectual nature . . . there 
are moments when I should like Vernon to take me away 
and shut me up in a castle and keep me all to himself, 
keep me from hearing or knowing anything about all 
the great and important subjects of the day. . . . I'd enjoy 
it, mother. . . . Are you ashamed of me ? " 

Ml’S. Lekejian smiled as she thought to herself how 
every woman has longed to be a slave to some man's 
passion. But she only said : It's a natural instinct, it 
will pass; it's nothing unusual." 

Stella shook her head. . . . “ It's more than that, mother. 

. . . It's stronger than that . . . it's the East and the West 
horribly muddled up in me." 


CHAPTER XVIII 


Stella and Vernon were just starting off on their expedi- 
tion to see the Coptic churches in Babylon, which is the 
name of the portion of the native city of Cairo where the 
Coptic churches lie hidden away like the secret meeting- 
houses of the early Christians in Rome, when their exit 
was stopped by the appearance of their dignified servant, 
Joseph, who told Stella that a young dragoman had called 
and had asked to see her father ; on hearing that he was 
not at home, he had asked if he could see her brother. 
When he was told that Nicolas also was not in the house 
he had entreated to be allowed to speak to the daughter 
of the house . . . his business being most urgent. 

Stella turned to Vernon. ‘‘ I had better see him for 
a moment. What is his name ? she asked Joseph. 

‘‘ Mahmud Hamdi.'' 

“ That's the name of the young Arab who showed us 
over the pyramids about a year ago. I wonder what he 
wants ? Do you mind coming into the library with me 
while I see him ? " Vernon followed her into the library, 
which was also Mr. Lekejian's private office. ‘‘ I wiU see 
him in here," Stella said to Joseph. “ TeU him I have 
only five minutes to spare." 

At Joseph's bidding a superb young Arab stepped quietly 
into the room and salaamed profoundly. Vernon was 
amazed at the dignity of his bearing, and at the elegance 
with which he wore his rich native dress. His was not 
the usual bizarre uniform of a dragoman — the vulgar 
display of gold lace and coloured trappings was absent ; 
nothing could have been in better taste or more pleasing 
to the eye than his native outfit. 

“ You remember me, my lady ? " he said in English. 

“ Yes, I remember you . . . you are Mahmud Hamdi. 

• . . What do you wish to teU me i " 

176 


176 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


Stella spoke coldly, and there was impatience in her 
voice : these fine young dragomen were vain creatures ; it 
did not do to treat them graciously, although their manners 
suggested the most perfect breeding. 

Mahmud smiled softly. His delicate teeth shone like 
jewels against his clearly-chiselled lips, which were childishly 
pink and smooth. “ My lady, there is much trouble in 
my famiZee ; I come to ask your father's advice." 

“ Why do you consult my father ? " Stella said. “ He 
is a Christian." 

“ No matter, my lady, him very just man, him write 
to the papers and tell Lord Minton." 

‘‘ Wliat has happened ? " Stella said. “ Please tell me 
quickly ; I am going out ; I have very little time." 

“ Yes, my lady, I will tell you very soon. . . . Your 
gen-le-man him wait a little, him very kind. . . . My 
father rich man, him own much land ; I show you lady 
other day all round near the pyramids ; him not want 
for anything." 

“ Yes, yes," Stella said. “Do go on — I know all about 
your family." 

“ Very well, my lady, my big brother him in prison for 
stealing antiquities. It one big lie, my lady ; my brother 
no need of any money, my father give him plenty, plenty, 
plenty ! " Mahmud waved his hand to suggest the roll- 
ing ocean of wealth which his father distributed amongst 
his sons. 

“ Then why is he in prison ? " 

“ I will tell you, my lady . . . Mohammed Hassan 
very jealous of him, Mohammed him pay the courts £700 
to put my brother in prison." 

“ And what do you want my father to do ? " 

“My lady, if your father tell Lord Minton, him very just 
man ; him give order to have case tried again in English 
courts." 

“ Oh," Stella said, “ I see ! That's it : your brother was 
tried in a native court and was sentenced by a native 
judge, now you wish the case tried in the English courts : 
you believe in English justice ? " 

“ Yes, my lady, because my brother him innocent ; 
every one knows Mohammed Hassan bribed the jury ; 
him very bad man." 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 177 

Stella looked at Vernon. ... ‘‘ You have heard all 

this ? she said. 

“ Yes/' Vernon said. . . . He didn't believe a word of 
what the man had said, because it was not in his nature 
to believe anything that an Oriental said, unquestioned. . . . 
Stella knew that the Arab was probably speaking the 
truth, because his father was a reputedly wealthy man, and 
his sons bore the character of being honest and trust- 
worthy ; but what interested her was the confession from 
the lips of this same young man who had talked to her so 
finely upon the subject of Egypt for the Egyptians," 
the day he had acted as her guide to the pyramids, that 
the native courts were corrupt, and that he was now anxious 
to have his brother's case tried again in the British courts. 
It was typical of the ethics of the Nationalist party in 
Cairo. 

“ How was the theft discovered ? " she asked. 

“ In big antichita shop in Luxor, my lady ; very fine 
pieces of curios have been seen for sale ; excavating gen-le- 
men watch very close ; my brother takes tourist peoples 
all over monuments in Egypt ; Mohammed Hassan him 
say that my family steal antichitas in the monuments and 
sell to Luxor shops." 

“ Why does Mohammed Hassan hate your brother ? " 

“ Him very jealous, my lady ; my brother very beautiful 
young man ; in Luxor a rich tourist family have lady's 
maid ; she fall in love with my brother, my brother not 
marry her." The very idea Mahmud scouted with scorn. 

Stella smiled. 

“ Mohammed Hassan him jealous of my brother's good 
business, him very jealous of my brother's nice face ; she 
very silly woman, she go tell everybody that she loves my 
big brother, that she is his darling ! Mohammed Hassan 
try all the time to ruin my brother, him succeed now very 
well." 

‘‘ And you think the native courts are corrupt ? " 

“ I know it, my lady : if your father tell Lord Minton, 
him try my brother's case in English courts." 

Stella was silent for a moment. 

Mohammed turned his attention to Vernon. “ Mister 
. . . you not seen pyramids ? I not seen you there. . . . 
To-night very fine moon : you bring young lady to see 
12 


178 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


pyramids, I find most splendid camels ; you enjoy very 
good excursion. I very fine dragoman : if you not want 
camels I take you very nice walk, no tourist peoples, all 
very quiet and nice for young lady and gen-le-man/" 

“ No, thank you,'" Vernon said, ‘‘ you stick to your 
business about your brother." 

Stella smiled, for Vernon w'as speaking to the magnifi- 
cently dressed Arab as though he was a street merchant 
selling fiy-switches — ^whereas he was really the son of a 
wealthy landed proprietor. This did not prevent Mahmud 
taking despised “ tourist peoples " over the pyramids 
at the charge of 6s, for the afternoon, and if he could not 
get 05. very often he gladly did the job for nothing, if 
he was attracted to the party, for he knew that he would 
be offered plenty of cigarettes and that he could practise 
his English. 

“ Well, Mahmud," Stella said thoughtfully, “ if I ask 
my father to use his influence on your brother's behalf, 
will you promise me that in the future, when you are talk- 
ing about Egypt for the Egyptians, you will remember 
that you no longer want Egyptian judges in your courts; 
will you tell all the tourists, when you speak about the 
injustice of the English people filling the posts in your 
Government which might be held by natives, that you 
have changed your mind — that you by personal experience 
kr Dw that Egypt is not yet ready for self-government — 
tell them that you came to my father, who is a Christian, 
to ask him to help you to have your brother's case tried 
in the uncorrupt English courts ? " 

“ Oh, yes, my lady, certainly ! I will promise every- 
thing you wish." 

Mahmud was eager to promise anything, for his talk 
of Egypt for the Egyptians had only been froth, as most 
of the fine talk of the young Egyptians in Cairo is. “ My 
lady, I tell everybody English peoples the most just in 
the world ... I tell everybody if English courts send a 
man to prison that man him guilty." 

“ Very well," Stella said, “ I'll see what my father can do." 

Mahmud salaamed respectfully. “ My lady, I thank 
you." He turned to Vernon : “ My gen-le-man, if you come 
to see pyramids you not forget Mahmud Hamdi. Good 
morning, my lady ; good morning, my gen-le-man." 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 179 

Good morning/" Stella said, and don"t you forget 
that the native courts are corrupt/" 

When the Arab had left Vernon said, ‘‘ Do you believe 
a word that beggar said? Do you think this brother did 
steal the curios ? "" 

“ No,"" Stella said thoughtfully. “ I shouldn"t think 
he did : they"re very well off, though Mahmud will take 
a few piastres for a morning"s work if you can"t afford to 
give him any more or won"t give it him. I should think 
that his story"s true — the native courts are dreadfully 
corrupt. . . ."" She turned to her lover smilingly : “ That"s 
one thing I think no one will deny — that the English courts 
are the best and straightest in the world."" 

‘‘ I"m glad we"ve one virtue in your eyes."" Vernon had 
not forgotten their quarrel of the evening before. 

“ I think you "re all virtues and prejudices ; the English 
are singularly free from big vices and the petty sins of 
corruption — ^perhaps your prejudice is only the self- 
righteousness of a naturally t^Ticorrupt nation."" 

When they arrived at the point at which they were to meet 
Michael Ireton, Stella said, ‘ ‘ Mr. Ireton isn"t coming with us ; 

I had a note from him this morning — he"s gone to Asiut."" 

“ Whatever for ? Isn"t there some disturbance going on 
there ? I read rather a nasty account of it in the paper 
this morning : I should think English people had better 
give Asiut a wide berth at present."" 

“ My father had to go there last night. Mr. Ireton 
thought that mother and I would be anxious about him, 
so he went off this morning. Besides, he wanted to see 
for himself what was going on : he"s awfully interested in 
this Copt question, and indeed in almost everything con- 
nected with Egypt."" 

Vernon did not speak. 

Stella understood why, although he had a very excel- 
lent excuse for not doing so, for they were passing through 
one of the narrowest and most crowded streets in the 
native town. . . . Scantily clothed men, carrying goat-skins 
full of water for sale, were barging into them with fearful 
yells, and at unexpected corners camels" heads appeared 
high above their o^vn, their soft tread giving no warning of 
their near approach. White donkeys, bearing fat women 
enveloped in black, trotted along regardless of whether 


180 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


there was room for the market produce they carried in their 
wallets to crush its way through the crowd of loafing and 
hurrying people. 

Vernon hated the whole thing : the smeUs and the fiies 
and the noise. They far outweighed in his mind the exquisite 
beauty of the mosque domes, which ’ooked as though they 
were made of delicate lace against the blue of the African 
sky ; and if there were minarets overhead, from which the 
call to prayer had sounded five times a day for over five 
hundred years, he did not see them ; if there was a feast of 
colour and a banquet of beauty in the old meshrebiya 
Avindow-screens of the mediaeval houses, it was all to him a 
filthy place, not fit for ladies to pass through. He wished 
to God that SteUa didn't care for old things ; it would have 
been so joUy out at the Ghezira Sports Club, or motoring 
by the banks of the Nile, where there was something green 
and clean to look at. The difficulty of walking and seeing 
that Stella was not molested occupied all his attention, 
while at the back of his mind there was the irritating 
thought that Michael Ireton had gone to Asiut to please 
Stella. He knew that the man had, in his quiet, unob- 
trusive way, somehow managed to place himseM on a footing 
of great intimacy with the family ; in fact he seemed more 
at home with them than Vernon did himself. When at 
last they reached the particular church Stella had chosen to 
see, they found that a service was going on. They had to 
mount a high stair to reach the building, which could not be 
seen from the outside. Some gorgeously robed priests were 
intoning in the Heykel or chancel behind a wall of wooden 
panel-work which completely shut off this portion of the 
building, where only the Coptic language is permitted ; 
the ordinary priests, who read and chant explanations in 
Arabic, and the choir and acolytes, were in an outer com- 
partment, which was separated from the congregation by 
an elaborately carved screen. A dozen choir-boys were 
squatting on the floor at the feet of the priests. Their 
behaviour was so shocking that before Stella and Vernon 
had been in the church a minute one of the priests, who wore 
a white garment with a Coptic cross on his back, of bright 
scarlet, stooped down, and picking up a wooden clog 
which one of the boys had discarded, threw it angrily at 
the most unruly member. 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


181 


There seemed to be nothing unusual in the proceeding, 
for it caused no sensation : the boys took it as unconcernedly 
as a party of playing puppies, and the priest went on 
explaining in Arabic the portion of the Scripture which 
had been read aloud in Coptic by one of the priests in 
the sanctuary. In the sanctuary no priest is allowed to 
sit down while reading the service, and as it takes many 
hours, the sound of tinkling cymbals, which announces the 
fact that the priest is weary and must sit down, is often 
heard. A number of women, who were all very closely 
veiled and enveloped in black shawls, were sitting on the 
floor in a sort of pen which was hidden by the finest 
meshrebiya screens ; they wei^^ nuns, and had evidently 
come in from the convent which formed a part of the 
extraordinary building. Certainly Vernon had never been 
in any church the least like it before — it was far more 
pagan and mysterious than the open and spacious Moham- 
medan mosques, most of which he admired ungrudgingly. 
As he stood and listened to the dull service muttered by 
turbaned priests, and heard the responses shouted by 
lolling boys, he wondered to himself what comfort or 
pleasure they found in the bare bones of their strange 
religion. He could not believe that it was such a service 
as this that had kept the Copts faithful to the Church 
for all these centuries of persecution. For two hundred 
and seventy years before there was a mosque in Cairo, 
this church had carried on this service. Everything 
about it was jarring to him — the close atmosphere, the 
certainty of vermin, the irreverent attitude of the officiating 
priest. He had no reverence for the exquisite art of builder 
and artisan which was everywhere around him, in the 
ancient wood-carving, in the unrivalled delicacy of the 
inlaid screens, in the exquisite horse-shoe arches, in 
the cipoZKno-columns, with classical capitals, which set the 
mind instantly wondering and asking from what pagan 
temple had the Early Christians stolen them. Stella 
was intensely interested, but she made a sign to Vernon 
that they would go ; she saw that he was bored, and she 
did not wish to force her point. She had had her way 
and so, after they had walked hurriedly through the con- 
vent, where the black-swathed nuns were squatting on their 
bare kitchen floor, drinking coflee out of very small cups. 


182 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


she was prepared to let him off any more sight-seeing. The 
convent was as bare and uninhabited-looking as Pompeii, 
and just as antiquated. For what reason the nuns lived 
there Stella could not imagine : they seemed to do no 
work, and their poverty was abject. One poor creature was 
quite mad : she was possessed with the idea that she was 
the favourite wife of the Khedive, and that he was always 
on the point of coming to see her. Their ignorance was 
appalling. The only room in the building which had any 
furniture in it was the reception-room for the archbishop. 

And it was terrible in its European hideousness. The 
narrow cells of the nuns, where even beds were not visible, 
were infinitely preferable, for they at least looked out upon 
an eastern courtyard of ancient beauty. But the general 
atmosphere of the place was horribly depressing : it had 
no air of aesthetic austerity or divine grace to elevate it. 
Stella compared it in her mind with the convent at Assisi 
where St. Clare spent her womanhood. How different it 
was ! This Coptic retreat for women who had determined 
never to marry was altogether sordid and unemotional. 
As they descended the staircase a Coptic youth met 
them at the bottom of it and implored Stella to enter the 
lower church : it was much more open, and larger, and had 
been freely restored. . . . Stella knew that it contained 
many treasures, but she did not wish to inflict any more 
sight-seeing upon Vernon, who said eagerly, “ Surely 
youVe had enough for one morning ! I can't stand that 
awful atmosphere any more : do come along." 

The Coptic youth in European clothes implored her 
again ; he saw a chance of improving his imperfect English 
and of relieving the monotony of the long and wearying 
service by gloating upon Stella's beauty. 

When she refused and turned away, Vernon gave a 
deep sigh of relief. 

Stella smiled. “ You're glad that's over." 

Yes, rather. I hate these beastly smelly places. The 
mosques are lovely ; if only there was anywhere to sit 
down in them, we could go into one and talk . . . but 
these dark churches hold all the smells and dirt that have 
ever got into them since the time of St. Mark. I say," 
he cried eagerly, ‘‘ do let's go out to the pyramids, and 
get some of the clear air of the desert into our lungs," 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


183 


Stella agreed willingly : it was on her mind that Nancy's 
visit had to be spoken about, and she thought that the 
desert would be a very good place to introduce the subject. 

As soon as they could find an ardbeah which looked 
clean enough to drive in, they dashed off at a break-neck 
pace to the point where the tram starts for the pyramids 
and the Mena House Hotel. It was not much after eleven 
o'clock when they found themselves seated in the desert 
just under the pyramids; they had walked over the golf- 
course and round the outskirts of a Bedouin village, and 
had chosen a resting-place where a plantation of palm 
trees and a mud village filled the foreground just under 
the pyramid hill. They had not ascended the high ground 
above the Mena House Hotel, but had dipped down in 
the hollow to the left after leaving the tram. The Bedouin 
village stretches from the end of the golf-course to below 
the pyramids on this fiat ground. From where they sat the 
palm trees seemed to grow right at the foot of the pyramids ; 
there was really a good stretch of desert between them. 

It was so delightful, and the sweet air of the desert after 
the close atmosphere of the city was so invigorating, that 
Vernon was soon in one of his sunniest moods. He had 
no wish to talk, nor had Stella ; they were absolutely 
alone, for tourists never wander into this lower portion of 
the desert ; but now and then little Arcadian scenes would 
unfold themselves before their eyes with a simplicity and 
naturalness which was in keeping with the soul of the 
desert. It might be that the lean brown figure of a 
small boy in a white cap, perched on the top of a tall 
camel, would pass across the foreground between them 
and the village of palms, or it might be the black figure 
of a woman who would emerge from one of the mud 
houses and walk with desert grace across the yellow sand : 
she had come to fill her tin basin with desert soap. 

One such figure, when she saw the two strangers seated 
on the sand, came slowly towards them. She was a 
creature of soft youth and beauty. Below her veil of 
thin black, which trailed in the sand behind her, there was 
a transparent shawl of brilliant silk, in which orange and 
gold and green caught the sunlight as she walked. It 
was her only coloured garment, but her brown arms and 
neck were covered with silver and gold jewellery. Gold 


184 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


beads as large as pigeons’ eggs, and lumps of coral like 
blocks of sealing-wax, were strung together in rows, and 
hung from her brown throat. Her thin black garment, 
which swathed her figure like a mummy, was open a little 
above the breasts. 

Her pretty face was not disfigured, like most desert 
girls’, with blue tattoo marks, and being a Bedouin she was 
of course unveiled. 

Vernon thought her a delightful creature ; he liked 
watching her dimples come and go as she talked to Stella 
about her simple home life. Like all primitive creatures 
she was very inquisitive, so Stella had to answer many ques- 
tions, some of which she was thankful that Vernon could 
not understand. Next in the procession was a camel laden 
with green fodder, a pleasant sight in a dry land ; it was 
followed by a man on a small black ass, who was carrying 
his baby son in front of him. His little daughter was 
trotting on foot by his side ; on her young head was a huge 
basket full of patty- cakes of manure which she had spent 
lier morning since sunrise in gathering from the road-side 
by the Mena House. The rich man’s horses gave her mot her 
manure to use as fuel for her oven. Next came a flock 
of black goats, driven by a black-robed woman who was 
carrying her baby in her arms. A copper pot full of soup 
was on her head — she was carr3dng it to the nearest furnace 
to have it cooked. ... As her upright figure disappeared 
in the distance, and only the black pot stood out against 
the clear sky, like some curious Eastern head-dress, 
Vernon broke the silence. 

“ I don’t mind these desert people a bit,” he said ; 
''they re all right. ... I suppose they are Arabs?” 

“Yes, Bedouin Arabs. The people in the villages round 
the pyramids pride themselves on the pureness of their 
Arab blood.” 

There was silence again. Vernon was thinking that he 
wouldn’t mind in the least if all Stella’s aunts and cousins 
were of pure Arab blood, if they were as simple and digni- 
fied as these quiet villagers. 

Stella was saying to herself, “ Now I must tell him about 
Nancy. I believe he wouldn’t mind her visiting us one bit 
if my father lived in one of these mud huts in that palm 
village ... he does not know that the roof is covered 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


185 


with dung ! '' She compared the black-robed figure of the 
young girl in the trailing shawl of rainbow-tints with her 
Levantine aunUs friends in their over-trimmed Parisian 
gowns. In her heart she knew that the comparison was 
odious, for here there was no vulgarity, in the desert 
homes there was no veneer of Parisian civilization. 

‘‘ Vernon,"" she said abruptly, ‘‘ I had a letter from Nancy 
this morning."" 

“ Hullo ! "" he said, ‘‘ how is she ? . . . Nancy would love 
this . . ."" he indicated the desert . . . “ wouldn"t she ? 
But Lord ! how she"d hate those beastly churches. By 
the way, why did every man who came in carry a crutch ? 
— they couldn"t all be lame ! "" 

Stella smiled. They must not sit during service, and 
the services often last for hours ; they carry crutches to 
rest upon while praying."" 

“ How odd ! They are so strict about some things and 
so slack about others ! "" He lapsed into silence again. 

“ Nancy says she is coming to Egypt ; she will be in 
Cairo next Thursday."" 

Vernon sprang to a sitting position — he had been lying 
at full length on the sand. ‘‘ Good Lord ! Stella, do you 
mean it ? "" 

‘‘ Yes, here is her letter."" She handed it to him : her 
heart was beating very quickly. Vernon read it through 
without comment ; for a few moments they remained silent. 

‘‘ Well ? "" she said. 

“ Well ? "" Vernon said slowly. ‘‘ I wish it needn"t 
have been, but I suppose it can"t be helped."" 

‘‘ You wish what needn"t have been ? "" 

‘‘ Nancy"s coming to Cairo."" 

‘‘ Why ? "" 

‘'You know why, dear ; and what"s more, you wish it 
too, you can"t deny it."" 

“ I don"t wish it,"" Stella said emphatically, but she 
knew she was lying as she spoke. “You mean you "re 
ashamed of me and my people ? "" 

“ Dearest, how can you say so ? "" 

“ Because it"s true. . . . I"ve not wired to Nancy yet, 
but I must do so when I go back."' 

“ What are you going to say ? " 

“ That depends."" 


186 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


“ Upon what ? 

Your wishes/^ 

“ Dearest/' he said eagerly, ‘‘ how nice of you ! Of course 
I'd much rather she didn't come," he turned to the letter 
again . . . but she's actually on her way out now, so 
whether she stays in Cairo or not she'll be in Egypt. ..." 
He paused. . . . “ What's to be done ? Great Scot ! " 

“ Oh ! it's quite simj)le," Stella said. Her words fell 
very slowly from her lips ; they were like drops of ice. 

“ How is it quite simple ? " 

“ I'll wire to her that we can't have her when she arrives, 
then I'll write to her and explain everything, and then if 
she chooses to come to us after her trip up the Nile it 
won't matter to you." 

The tone of her wwds made her lover glance anxiously 
at her face. “ Why won't it matter to me ? " he said. “ I 
don't wish Nancy to stay in Cairo either before or after 
her trip up the Nile." 

If she stays with me after she has heard all about our 
position in society in Cairo, she will not be coming as my 
future sister-in-law ... it need not trouble you." 

‘‘ Stella . . Vernon clasped her hands in his, “ Stella, 
what do you mean ? " 

‘'I mean just w^hat I told you last night — that if my 
people can't be yours, yours can't be mine." 

He held her hands more tightly. ‘‘ But you will be 
mine . . . you promised you would ... I hold you to 
it. . . . Let's be quits : I don't care if you accept my people 
or reject them — we love each other, that's enough." 

She tried to withdraw her hands ; her face was white 
and tense. 

“You don't love me any more, you are tired of me . . . 
you make this an excuse." 

Stella dropped her eyes. A curious revelation had un- 
consciously come to her at the very moment that he was 
telling her that he would hold her to his promise — that 
his touch had ceased to thrill her, that not once during 
the whole morning while he had been with her had the 
old intoxicating flame of passion rushed through her 
veins and drugged her will-power. A terrible numbness 
came over her, she could not speak. Vernon instinc- 
tively felt some lessening of his power . . . the magnetic 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


187 


current had broken ! And as he felt it he hungered to 
kiss her back to subjection ; his vanity was bruised ; he 
looked round to see if any one was in sight before pressing 
his lips to hers ; away in the distance a group of Arab 
boys in white jebbas were playing at a sort of hockey 
on the sand with sticks and a ball . . . their flying figures 
looked like white gulls against the bright blue of the 
sky. Trains of camels, coming from the right and from the 
left, passed each other in haughty disdain : their burdens 
were humble enough, for some of them carried boxes and 
bedding and pots and pans, the entire contents of a 
Bedouin home, and others cheap green fodder for the black 
goats which surrounded them ; yet their bearing had the 
dignity of other days. There was no one to see ; he bent 
forward to draw her to him — he must make the flame ignite, 
he must kindle it to the warmth of passion. 

‘‘You are mine,"" he said, “ do you hear ? — mine only, and 
for ever. Stella, say you love me, say that only our love 
matters !..."" 

With a composure she hated herself for feeling she 
allowed him to kiss her lips, to use his lover"s privileges ; 
she was eager to feel responsive, for as yet she was scarcely 
conscious that she was not. She did not dream that his 
kisses could never do again what they had done only a 
few days ago. 

“ Say you love me,"" he said ; “ say it, darling ! I must 
hear it from your lips."" There was a new note of anxiety 
in his voice — the lack of response in her lips had awakened 
it ; something, he could not tell what, made him feel less 
sure of her : it made him angry, and doubly keen to subju- 
gate her once more. ... It is a dangerous moment when a 
woman finds out for the first time that the man she has 
blindly adored has no longer the power to intoxicate her 
senses, that his kisses no longer act as narcotics . . . the 
feeling may pass, and the old fierce love return for a time, 
but the malady is like paralysis — the first attack is always 
followed by a second of a more serious nature, the third 
invariably proves fatal. 

She pushed him gently away. “ How ever much I love 
you, it doesn"t matter if you feel as you do about my 
people ; I sl]oiildn"t consider my promise binding."" 

“ I"m awfully fond of your mother and father, and I"ll 


188 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


pretend I love even Girgis and all your cousins, rather 
than give you up. Will that please you V 

He had caught her hands again, and imprisoned them 
fiercely. 

“ What about Nancy coming ? 

Let her come,"" he said hotly. 

“ Thank you, dear ; I will ask her ; I"m so sorry."" 

‘‘ Sorry. What for ? "" 

“ That Nancy should have placed you in this awkward 
position."" 

He smiled. There, darling, I knew you didn"t want 
her to come — ^it was only your pride."" 

‘‘ I only mean that I"m sorry for you because you mind ; 
I don"t, I"d rather she knew . . ."" she paused. . . . ‘‘ I 
think you"re doing a very unwise thing."" 

In what way ? "" 

‘‘ In persisting in continuing our engagement. You"d 
much better take your liberty : I"m young enough to 
recover from the shock."" She smiled sweetly, to soften the 
bitterness of her words. 

‘‘ Then I don"t,"" he said ; “ and what"s more, you"ve got 
to promise that you "11 never again mention the word 
liberty or breaking ojff with me, if I do my utmost to 
please you in regard to your people. Promise,"" he said — 
he held her face in his two hands — “ promise . . . say 
after me, ‘ I, Stella Adair, promise to marry you, Vernon 
Thorpe, at the soonest date possible, if you are as nice as 
you can be to my people." "" 

Stella looked laughingly into his eyes — they were very 
boyish and blue — but as she looked the plain face, with 
its strongly marked lines, of Michael Ireton rose up before 
her, a curious coldness numbed her heart, a touch of pity 
entered into her feeling for Vernon ... his old master- 
ship was dead. . . . She paused and then said slowly, 
“ I, Hadassah Lekejian — ^for that is how it must be — am 
willing to marry you : the old engagement with Stella Adair 
is a thing of the past ; the new compact must be made 
with Hadassah Lekejian, the Syrian Hadassah Lekejian, 
the cousin of Girgis Boutros.""" 

‘‘ All right,"" he said, ‘‘ so be it, insert Hadassah Lekejian 
in the agreement and give me a kiss to seal it."" Some- 
thing of love"s passion stirred Stella"s senses as he renewed 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


189 


the compact ; they were young, and the peace of the African 
desert enveloped them. For the time being Stella's soul was 
lulled to rest : the animal content of the Bedouin women, 
in their trailing black garments, who kept ever coming 
and going across the yellow sand, seemed very enviable, 
while the stern outline of the pyramids, silhouetted against 
the turquoise sky, forced their ‘‘ terror of age " upon her 
and showed her the folly of her own unrest. 

Here, with the procession of Egypt passing and repassing 
before her as it had passed in this empty world of heaven 
and sand ever since the Sphinx had been hewn out of 
Libyan rock by an unknown genius at the command of 
an unknown Pharaoh for his unknown God, how could 
she be a slave to doubts and fears of human passions ? 
She had imagined that Vernon would be the master of her 
desires for ever, that her great battle would always be to 
free herself from the obsession of his love, to act up to her 
own ideals, and not to blindly obey him in all things ; in 
the old days the selfish enjoyment of administering to his 
selfishness had lowered her in her own eyes. Now uncon- 
sciously the bonds of love were loosening, another voice 
had dropped a diviner poison in her ears. A new and awful 
desire had come to her, a desire known only to her sub- 
conscious self, to test her power over the stronger man's 
heart, to make the man who was “ the master of his soul 
and the captain of his fate " love her madly ! Was 
she nothing better than a courtesan ? Was the sensual 
Levantine blood in her veins asserting its true power ? The 
idea revolted her : she would have given herself at that 
very moment to her lover, to prove to herself that she 
was no wanton of wandering passions. All she was aware 
of was that in Vernon's love for her she now saw a boyish- 
ness and selfishness she had never found before ; she was 
angry with herself for having discovered a flaw in the 
ideal she had ; created, the ideal she had enshrined in 
the outwardly perfect form of Vernon Thorpe. At that 
very moment he looked an ideal lover, yet, as she con- 
fessed to herself, the personality of Michael Ireton rose 
before her eyes, his heavy, almost colossal flgure, his blunt, 
irregular features, his brilliant and melancholy eyes. She 
closed her mind upon it in anger ; she had not wished to 
see it, she had used no effort of memory to visualize it. 


190 


A WIPE OUT OP EGYPT 


Per the rest of their morning in the desert Stella was a 
perfect lover. Her sweetness of disposition at all times 
made her a delightful companion, and this morning the 
little voice which could not be hushed urged her to do her 
utmost to please Vernon, and he was easily pleased, for he 
asked nothing more than to idle in the golden sunshine 
by her side while he smoked Egyptian cigarettes and 
watched the simple doings of the peasant peoples. They 
talked lazily of many things : of Nancy’s coming, of their 
proposed visit to the Payyum to see Girgis’s farm, and of 
the possibility of their marriage in the following winter. 


CHAPTER XIX 


A WEEK of horrible anxiety for Stella brought forth no 
dreaded results. If youth could only realize what age 
knows,* through bitter experiences — that few evils in this 
world are as bad as our anticipations, that our fears are 
our greatest miseries ! Mr. Lekejian had returned to the 
bosom of his family unhurt, Michael Ireton had left 
Asiut for Abydos, and Nancy had arrived and taken her 
place in the Lekejian household as simply and happily as 
though they had been English people living in Mayfair. 

All Stella's dreaded explanations were unnecessary. 
Nancy simply washed her hands of the English inhabitants 
of Cairo — she had introductions to many important people, 
she refused to present any of them ; Stella had not the 
courage to tell her that Vernon had asked her to prevent 
his sister paying them a visit during the season, and Vernon 
himself seemed anxious not to mention the fact — ^he had 
been led into one private talk with Nancy upon the subject 
of Stella's relations, in which Nancy had done some very 
plain speaking. It goes without saying that she knew 
nothing at all about the extremely difficult subject of 
mixed races in the East, and that in her loyalty to Stella 
she under-estimated the enormous advantage it is to the 
young Egyptians in Cairo to have the example of healthy- 
minded, sport-loving Englishmen like Vernon Thorpe in 
their midst — ^for, with aU their faults, and they are many 
(and unfortunately they are of the nature which makes 
Englishmen peculiarly offensive to the natives), the presence 
of the young Englishmen in Egypt is a healthy influence 
for the nation's moral regeneration. Other races may 
possess qualities which engender love instead of hatred in 
the Egyptian breast, but no other nation could give them 
a better example of the manly characteristics in which 
they are most lacking themselves. That they respect the 

191 


192 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


very Englishmen whom they hate is indisputable, in spite 
of the fact that they are Christians ; and after all, to say 
that they respect them is the highest compliment they can 
pay them ; they certainly neither respect nor trust one 
another. 

Since Nancy's advent in Cairo, Nicolas had become a boy 
again. Her high spirits and inexhaustible vitality had 
shaken him out of himself : never had Stella seen him so 
light-hearted or happy. He had thrown off the gravity 
and silence which had become habitual to him since his 
life had been spent in Cairo ; he was more like the en- 
thusiastic and gay “ old Nick " of his irresponsible student 
days in Paris. When Nancy saw him lapse into gravity 
and melancholy, she chaffed him out of it, for she was 
afraid of no man living, and as she had always been an 
object of adoration she never doubted her powers to beget 
affection, and she was not mistaken. Mr. Lekejian adored 
her : when she was in his presence he beamed on her with 
tender, approving eyes, and when she laughed he sighed. 
Alas, how seldom Stella's voice rang through the old house 
like Nancy's ! Her mirth and humour were delicious to 
his ears, and her childish fairness was indescribably appeal- 
ing to his affection. He would have rejoiced to have had 
another daughter, fair, wilful, and provoking like Nancy, 
a child whom he could spoil and tease and play with as he 
never now could spoil and tease and play with Stella, who, 
like her brother Nicolas, very seldom showed any of the 
high spirits and wilfulness that had characterized her as 
a child. 

Wlien the girls sauntered about the wonderful garden 
arm in arm, something very warm and gracious flowed 
through the old man's veins ; they were both so lovely, 
both so dear to him, for Nancy was inexpressibly dear 
to him because of her loyalty to Stella and her whole- 
hearted adoption of his despised race. The girl had only 
been a week in his house, but already he was her staunch 
friend for life — ^he would have done anything to give her 
pleasure and to guard her from trouble, and the odd thing 
was that he had found, in this little girl who had carried 
all the way from England the freshness of hedge-roses in 
her cheeks and an English child's lightness of laughter in 
her voice, a woman of quick and resourceful intuition in 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


193 


a moment of need, and splendidly intelligent about the 
graver matters of life. On his return from Asiut he had 
discovered her installed in his house as a member of his 
family, playing with his son in a way which showed him 
that Nicolas was still very impressionable and delightfully 
young in spite of his grave manner ; and showering affection 
on both his wife and daughter, who had both been so 
anxious about her coming. 

Towards himself Nancy evinced the warmest tokens of 
friendship : in three days he had seen more of her society 
than he had seen of his daughter's in three weeks, for 
Nancy invaded his office at all hours and monoj^olized 
him whenever he returned to his home. The details of 
the Asiut disturbance he related to her word for word, 
especially the exciting incidents, which he had to elaborate 
to satisfy her, while he realized that, without grasping 
the complicated state of affairs which the situation pre- 
sented, she seized upon the salient facts with a rapidity 
and sense that surprised even the quick intelligence of 
the Syrian. And Nancy was surprised to find what a 
staunch upholder of the English policy in the East Stella's 
father was. Nothing that his family had suffered through 
the narrow-mindedness of social circles in Cairo had budged 
him one inch from his loyalty to what he considered the 
right cause, or blinded him to the fact that only since 
the English had been in Egypt had there been anything 
resembling prosperity or peace in the country. 

“ Things are bad enough as they are," he told Nancy, 
as he had often told his wife and daughter. ‘‘The cess- 
pools of Cairo are still here, but they are like lakes of 
pure water compared to what they once were. I am old 
enough to remember ‘ the other days,' and therefore I can 
judge. It is all very well for you, little Nancy," he said, 
“ to come out from England and think that things are 
a disgrace to English rule in Egypt " (Nancy had been 
reading the death-rate in Cairo, and expressed with youthful 
indignation her horror of the infant mortality), “ but you'd 
think the city a garden of Eden if you had known it when 
I was a child. In my young days yoii could not walk 
through the native town without stepping into mire and 
filth which often came up over the ankles." 

When he told her that the estimate for the new installa- 
13 


194 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


tion of modern drainage in Cairo, the most modern in the 
world, amounted to £3,500,000, and that it was likely to be 
accepted, she was solemnly impressed ; she understood a 
little better the magnitude of the undertakings which are 
being done by the present rulers in Egypt. It would have 
been impossible for any intelligent being to live in the 
Lekejian household and not have her brain and imagination 
stimulated, however lethargic she might be — and Nancy was 
anything but lethargic — for on all subjects they were abreast 
of the times, and Nancy noticed, with English admiration 
for those who have ‘‘ the gift of tongues,'' that there were 
books and periodicals and newspapers, besides scientific 
works, lying about on the various tables in all the sitting- 
rooms of the rambling old house, written in at least four 
European languages. “ And these," she kept saying to 
herself over and over again — “ and these are the people 
Vernon is ashamed to call his relations." For that he was 
ashamed, not of Stella herself, but of her cousins and aunts, 
Nancy had divined before she had seen him in Cairo one 
hour. A hundred times a day when she was with the 
Lekejians she felt her own ignorance and intellectual 
limitations. Even with Nicolas, in spite of her “ chaffing," 
she always was aware of his mental superiority. 

It was a strange experience for Nancy, suddenly being 
dropped into the middle of an undreamt-of environ- 
ment, finding herself a member of a household whose out- 
look upon many familiar subjects was entirely new to 
her. Instead of coming as a visitor to Egypt to see the 
ancient monuments and enjoy the social gaieties provided 
by the hotel-keepers for pleasure -seeking tourists, she 
had been thrust into the centre of a life which was pal- 
pitating with political unrest, she was seeing Egypt behind 
the veil . . . she was learning to look upon her own race 
as not altogether unimpeachable or without blemish. 

The case of Mahmud Hamdi and the stolen curios was to 
be tried again in British courts. Mr. Lekejian, after con- 
senting to look into the case, advised Mahmud Hamdi to 
employ a celebrated Belgian lawyer and rely entirely on his 
judgment of the case, with the result that it was to be tried 
again in the English courts. It was, however, urged by 
the society of archaeologists that such a case ought to be 
tried fairly and the disgraceful proceedings openly exposed. 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


195 


If the case went against Mohammed Hassan and his con- 
freres, the Lekejians knew that there would be yet one 
more enemy added to Nicolas Lekejian senior's account . . . 
an enemy of the most unscrupulous order, for the case 
was a very black one. But Nicolas Lekejian paid no more 
account to his enemies, or their threats, than a man who 
is scrupulously honest and clean-handed ever does in a 
country where the dignity of disregard is the strongest 
weapon. 

During the week that Nancy was in Cairo she had many 
novel and exciting experiences. The second evening after 
her arrival she went with the Lekejians and her brother to 
see a Coptic wedding, and the night after to see a Moham- 
medan one. They were so similar in character that she would 
never have guessed that they were not both Mohammedan 
if Stella had not told her. Vernon was with them on both 
occasions, and Nancy was amazed to see how little real 
interest he took in the extraordinary ceremonies and 
festivities. He did not even think them picturesque, 
though the Mohammedan marriage was exceptionally 
splendid, for the household was celebrating a double event, 
the safe return of their elder son from Mecca and the 
marriage of their younger son to a wealthy carpet-merchant's 
daughter. The Lekejians were of course mere onlookers, 
like any other strangers, but through their intimate know- 
ledge of Arabic Nancy was initiated into all that passed. 
At the Coptic wedding she and Stella were invited to go 
upstairs to the women's part of the house and be introduced 
to the bride, a shy, dark-eyed creature, who was sitting by 
herself in a little room apart from the crowd with her hus- 
band's best man. Her bridegroom was downstairs helping 
to entertain his guests, according to customary etiquette. 

Nancy had also seen the return of a Hadji from Mecca . . . 
a sight she was never likely to forget, for its amazing 
picturesqueness and mediaeval magnificence. To-night 
tkey were to go to an Arab theatre ; the famous Arab 
tenor Stella h^ so often heard discussed by her brother 
and his musical friends was to sing two solos. Vernon was 
to make one of the party. When all the family were 
together on such occasions Nancy could not help noticing 
that her brother invariably found a place next to Mrs. 
Lekejian, if he was not with Stella, for Mrs. Lekejian was 


196 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


extremely fond of him and often fought his battles when 
Nancy attacked her brother with her hot tongue and ready 
wit. Nancy, with her all-seeing eyes and inquisitive senses, 
had divined that Mrs. Lekejian was the only one of the 
party who understood Vernon or whom Vernon understood ; 
the qualities which Stella had not inherited from her mother 
kept a veil between herself and her lover which could never 
be lifted. The Stella who had been evolved out of her 
new surroundings and peculiar circumstances mystified 
and distanced her lover. During the performance at the 
Arab theatre Stella was more than usually silent. Nancy 
was not to discover the reason until long afterwards : 
Stella had been invited that same afternoon to take an 
active part on the working committee which was being 
organized in connection with the new Government schools 
for the practical education of native girls in domestic 
subjects. Her mind was running on the main features of 
the project, and they were keeping her preoccupied. 

The outstanding difficulty in the work was, of course, the 
fact that by far the greater proportion of w^omen in Egypt 
are Moslems, and in the Moslem population only three 
women per thousand can read, and added to that there is 
the difficulty that only women may teach women or lecture 
to them, so that the number of female teachers is wholly 
inadequate to supply the girls" schools. The number of 
Moslem men who can read per thousand is only eighty -five. 
It was in connection with the movement for the free educa- 
tion for girls upon such subjects as practical housewifery 
that Stella had been invited to give her services. It was 
thought that, apart from the new Government school 
instituted for this purpose in Cairo, to which some of the 
more advanced Moslem families sent their daughters, some 
of the European ladies in Cairo might give free lessons 
to girls and lectures to women, to prepare them for house- 
hold work and to teach them to be better wives and mothers. 

The girls would naturally only attend such lectures with 
the willing consent of their parents, who would be assured 
that no religious instruction would be given. Considering 
the fact that there had been ninety-four applications for 
the thirty vacancies for the Government posts as instruc- 
tresses on such subjects — the term of instruction consisted 
of a two years" course at a college in England — Stella 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


197 


felt convinced that the lectures would in time be well 
attended and do much good. She thought that if only she 
could teach two mothers in one year to keep their tiny 
babies clean and prove to them how disastrous it was to 
their health to let flies cover their poor discharging eyes 
and noses, she would be doing something towards paying 
off the debt she owed to mankind for living a luxurious and 
useless life whilst all around her poverty and ignorance and 
bondage stared her in the face. If she could only teach 
two girls the great religion of Honour, Cleanliness, and Self- 
respect, they in their turn might teach their sons the 
advantage of choosing wives from among the higher types 
of womanhood which this day of greater enlightenment 
is undoubtedly bringing forth even in the East. 

The Arab play, which was very biblical to Nancy, 
because of the biblical dress of the actors, who were all 
men, and their solemn mien, as they sat on chairs 
arranged in a half-moon far back on the stage and de- 
claimed in dignifled tones, was not interesting enough 
to hold Stella's attention . . . her thoughts were more 
engrossing, and, as Nancy naturally did not understand a 
word of what was being said, the proceedings, with their 
unvaried monotony of tone and gesture, “ bored her to 
tears," as she herself expressed the state of her feeling 
to Nicolas. Nancy did not know in the least what she 
had expected, but anyhow it was nothing in the least 
like what she saw ; to her uninitiated mind Arab acting 
was totally undramatic and sadly lacking in picturesque- 
ness. 

Suddenly, however — she did not know why — the drama 
seemed to be gaining in interest, for there were moans, 
and groans, and curious WTi-human exclamations of emo- 
tion coming from the large audience of men which filled 
the body of the theatre. All the women were out of 
sight in a gallery, behind a grille like a nuns' gallery in 
a Catholic church. The wave of excitement was followed 
by two veiled women being dragged across the stage by 
fresh actors. At this juncture even Stella evinced a 
little interest, and tried to interpret what was happening 
to Nancy ; but the particular event of the evening, the 
event which people like themselves had come to hear, was 
the tenor, who came forward at last and was welcomed 


198 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


with wild and strange tokens of enthusiasm. Nancy and 
Vernon were the only two Europeans in the house, Mrs. 
Lekejian excepted. 

Just before the tenor commenced singing Nancy noticed 
a wave of colour flood Stella's pale skin, and a look of 
surprised pleasure light up her tragic eyes. Nancy did 
not betray that she had noticed Stella's emotion, but 
followed her gaze across the house to the level of the 
stalls, and in so doing met the commanding eyes of 
Michael Ireton fixed on their box. She wondered who 
he was, with his air of distinction — distinction not of 
good looks certainly, but of individuality and strength. 
His curious attitude of aloofness from his fellows was 
noticeable even on such an occasion. When the tenor 
began, Michael Ireton, however, was forgotten, for never 
before had Nancy heard anything so monstrously funny 
or so unlike her idea of beautiful singing. To her ignor- 
ant ears it was frightfully ridiculous ; if the man was 
singing a love-song, she thought it would have made 
a cat laugh. Her eyes sought Stella's, and when they 
met the two girls could scarcely conceal their amusement. 
Vernon had retired to the back of the box, where he remained 
literally doubled up with quiet laughter. 

But the Arab men in the body of the house were not 
amused, they were moved and enchanted. The singer had 
carried them into worlds of exquisite delight. When he 
quavered and trilled, in the strangest of falsetto voices, on 
one beat of a note for a longer time than usual, they called 
out, God approve thee, God prosper thy voice ! " Nancy 
thought she could not endure it a moment longer without 
laughing outright, yet the natives groaned or rocked to and 
fro with delight. In their enjoyment there was something 
curiously sensual and indelicate, and the grunts of satis- 
faction they gave hurt the girl's innate sense of decency. 
She was glad that the Lekejians' box removed them from 
the level of the crowd, for she felt that she would not like 
to meet the eyes of any one of the Arabs who were giving 
such curious vent to their appreciation. Stella was 
thankful that only her father and Nicolas could under- 
stand the words of the song, not that they were very 
bad — not really as suggestive, she had to admit, as many 
popular songs in English musical comedies, but they were 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


199 


just bad enough for Orientals to make much worse in 
their imaginings. When the song was ended, and the Arabs 
had grunted and sighed out their tokens of approval 
and had showered roses and jasmine flowers at the singer, 
Michael Ireton appeared in their box. From the first 
moment when he shook hands with Stella and said his 
formal ‘‘ How do you do ? to Vernon, Nancy knew that 
the big, dominating man loved her brother's fiancee, and 
as a brother is never a very romantic personality to 
a sister she wondered why Stella preferied Vernon to 
this rather mysterious being who reminded her of all that 
she had heard about Cecil Rhodes. 

To-night Vernon looked delightfully well bred and 
physically fit, and almost as fair as Nancy herself. In this 
land of dark-eyed, almond-skinned peoples, he seemed 
absurdly clean and blue-eyed. Michael Ireton's eyes were 
quite unremarkable in size or colour, it was their sincerity 
and melancholy that made them the pleasant feature of 
his rather massive face. There was nothing little about 
Ireton, and curiously enough, one of Nancy's first thoughts 
about him were what Stella's had often been : ‘‘ W^hat a 
rock of defence round any woman his arms would be, 
what rest for any woman to find herself lost in their 
strength ! " Nancy scarcely spoke to him, and when the 
party left their box to walk up and down the ugly little 
corridor outside, which they did during the second and 
last act, she noticed how anxious he was to speak to 
Stella alone. For some feminine reason which was wholly 
unreasonable she helped him to achieve his object. 

“ You are not looking well," he said to Stella, after 
her slight embarrassment at meeting him had subsided ; 
‘‘ have things been troubling you over much since I saw 
you last ? " He looked at her earnestly and spoke very 
guardedly : in his bearing towards her there was more 
emotion than in his words, and Stella felt it. 

‘‘ No, oh no ! " she said quickly, things have been 
better. . . . Nancy is such a dear, I love having her." 

‘‘ I'm so glad, little girl," he said tenderly, “ for I'm 
going away, and it will make things easier for me to know 
that you have got her with you . . . that . . ." He did 
not finish, for Stella's cry of ‘‘ Going away ? " startled him : 
her words merely repeated his own, but there was a world 


200 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


of meaning in them — to Michael Ireton they sounded like 
a cry of pleading. 

‘‘ Yes, going away,"" he said, ‘‘ for I find myself defeated, 
utterly routed. I can"t be only your friend, Hadassah. . . . 
I knew it when I saw you to-night ; it"s no use pretending."" 

A sudden desire to free herself from Vernon over- 
whelmed her . . . she longed for nothing so much as to 
tell Michael Ireton to stay — to stay and to pretend no 
longer. She could scarcely get breath enough to speak . . . 
Ireton thought he had hurt her. 

I know I promised,"" he said, “ never to speak of this 
again : I"m a selfish beast, but . . .""he paused, ‘‘ well, I 
only wanted to explain why I am going away for ever 
without seeing you any more ; I was pretending it was for 
your sake, but it is pure selfishness . . . forgive me ! "" 

Stella held out a trembling hand. “ Don"t go, please 
don"t go ... I want you to stay . . ."" there was some- 
thing in her voice that made him turn with a sudden direct- 
ness and look at her ... he had been avoiding her eyes, 
not even glancing at her pale face while he spoke. 

‘‘ I am not to go . . . you ask me to stay ? "" He seemed 
to tower over her in a way which made her feel very 
helpless and captured. “You can only mean one thing in 
saying that ... do you mean it, Hadassah ? . . . can you 
mean it ? "" He seized her hands and crushed them in his 
until the pain almost made her cry out — they were alone 
in a part of the passage which was unfrequented. She did 
not answer, so he repeated, “ Is it true ? Why do you ask 
me to stay ? "" 

Suddenly she tried to free herself and said, “ Go — oh 
go, go ! You must think I am mad."" 

But he held her fast. “ You are not mad,"" he said, 
“ but the maddest thing you can do is to marry a man 
you don"t any longer love ... it is wronging Mm as well 
as yourself . . . don"t send me away if you care for me ! 
Things will come right."" 

The suggestion from his lips that she no longer loved 
Vernon horrified her : of course she loved him, if she loved 
any one on earth. She tried to tell him so, but her lame 
protests were stopped, for suddenly there was a commotion 
and cries of alarm, Stella heard words which blanched 
her cheeks and made her fly from Michael Ireton"s side 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


201 


to the entrance of their box, where a crowd had gathered. 
When she reached the door, Nicolas sprang to her side, 
and put his arm round her as though to guard her. 
“Come with me, Stella,'" he said tenderly ; “Vernon has 
been wounded : he saved father's life a moment ago down 
in the buffet” It seemed as if Stella herself had been 
suddenly stabbed, for she almost sank to the ground. 
Nicolas whispered to her, “ Be brave, dear ; he is not dan- 
gerously hurt." 

“ And father, is he safe ? Where is Vernon ? Take me 
to him." With a splendid effort she straightened herself 
and said, “ I am all right ; I really will be perfectly calm." 

“ Father wasn't touched, and Vernon's not badly hurt." 

“ Where is he ? You must let me go to him." 

A wild feeling of shame for her disloyalty to Vernon 
flooded her being. “ Take me to him, Nicolas," she said 
most pleadingly ; “ he will be expecting me." She longed 
to abase herself before Vernon to atone for her guilt. 

“You can't see him to-night, dearest; he's gone to the 
hospital. Fortunately Dr. Mason was in the house, just 
outside the buffet ; he carried him off at once in a cab ; 
he'll be all right when the bleeding's stopped." 

Stella collapsed in a little heap on the seat nearest the 
door in their box. Nancy flew to her, pale and trembling 
but calm ; her young arms closed tenderly round the 
shattered girl. “ He'll be all right, darling, in no time 
... it is nothing serious, it really isn't," she appealed 
touchingly to Nicolas, “ the doctor said it wasn't, didn't 
he ? " She looked again to Nicolas to back her words, for 
Mrs. Lekejian had gone home with her husband. “He's 
a soldier, remember, and this is only a scratch, though it 
might have been horribly serious." 

Stella made a great effort to regain her self-control. 
“ How did it happen ? " she said. “ Have they caught the 
murderer ? Oh, these wretches, how merciless they 
are ! " 

“ Yes, they got him — ^he's in safe keeping now. To do him 
justice, he didn't make any attempt to escape ; he's one 
of the Al-Lewa crowd, and considers that the part father 
has played in exposing the corruption of the native courts 
has proved conclusively that he is a traitor to Egypt's 
freedom ; it fired a wretched youth, an independent Nation- 


202 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


alist, to attempt his murder ; he considers father's work 
in the whole affair was ‘ anti-Egyptian.' Of course he's 
scarcely to blame, poor youth — ^he's simply been inflamed 
to madness by the Al-Lewa party. Probably he's one of 
the best, for at least he's risked his own neck for the 
sake of what he considers his country's good. Vernon 
behaved splendidly : father undoubtedly would have been 
killed if he hadn't sprung at the wretcli and spoilt his aim." 

‘‘ Oh," Stella said, with a pitiful cry, the wicked 
murderers ! How I hate them all ! How I hate myself ! 
Take me home — let's go home, Nancy." She said the last 
words insistently. As she saw Michael Ireton's tall figure 
enter their box, she clung feverishly to Nicolas. “ Where 
is he wounded ? Poor Vernon ... is he conscious ? . . . 
are you keeping anything back ? . . . Tell me the truth, 
I prefer it. . . ." 

Nicolas drew her away while he asked Ireton to look 
after Nancy, to whom the whole thing was bewilderingly 
incomprehensible and horrifying ; truly the lust and 
passion of the East was being revealed to her hour by 
hour. She could not but feel very proud of Vernon, and 
somehow just a little glad that he had been given an 
opportunity of proving to Stella the sound metal he was 
made of. She did not believe that he was seriously injured, 
and, knowing his excellent constitution, she felt confident 
of his quick recovery ... in a day or two he would be 
playing polo again just as he so often had done after 
accidents which had alarmed all onlookers at the game. 
Nicolas had described to her how Vernon had seen the 
man's revolver pointed at his father, and without pausing 
for one second had thrown his glass of lemon squash in 
the man's eyes, with the result that the weapon was 
turned on himself as the man's arm swung round. 

Any snobbishness she had accused him of in Cairo was 
entirely wiped out, he was wholly reinstated in Nancy's 
good books again. 

As Michael Ireton said good night to her in the Arab 
courtyard of the Lekejians' house, he said : “ This is the 
first time we have met, but there is a great bond of sym- 
pathy between us. We are both Stella's devoted friends. 
I am going away, and I will not see her again for a long 
time. I am very thankful to know that you are with her 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 203 

. . . her life is very difficult here, she has told me that 
you make all the difference in the world/" 

‘‘ I do nothing,"" Nancy said ardently. What can any 
one do ? I only love her and . . ."" She paused. 

He quickly interrupted her. That is how you help 
her,"" he said : ‘‘ you love her, she needs love — abundant 
love and understanding. You will not grudge her either ? "" 

As he finished speaking he raised the girPs small hands 
to his lips. Good-bye,"" he said gravely, ‘‘ and God bless 
you : I may never see you again."" 

Good-bye,"" Nancy said. With girlish simplicity she 
added, ‘‘ I wish you weren"t going away ; I think in Egypt 
it would be nice to have a big friend like you."" 


CHAPTER XX 


Vernon's recovery was not such an easy and speedy one 
as Nancy had predicted. The wound healed satisfactorily, 
but his temperature had a nasty habit of rising and falling, 
in the way that temperatures do rise and fall in the East, 
even with the healthiest patients, a fact which kept all 
concerned for his welfare anxious and restless. One day he 
would be much better, with an almost normal temperature ; 
the next day it would have risen again, and so on, and 
with no specific reason for its doing so. The girls were 
only occasionally permitted to see him, though he was 
lonely and bored in the hospital, in spite of the excellent 
care and the kindness he received. When Stella saw 
him for the first time after the accident he made so little 
of what he had done that she could have knelt at his 
bedside in humility, but whenever she attempted to thank 
him or to praise him for his splendid nerve he would 
say, ‘‘ Oh, chuck it, old girl ! There isn't the greatest 
rotter living who wouldn't have done the same thing as 
I did." 

And Stella always had to chuck it, for talking about it 
obviously annoyed him, and her strict injunctions from 
the nurse were to do nothing to excite or tire him. Until 
her brother was in a more safely convalescent stage Nancy 
refused to go up the Nile or leave Cairo, so the Littlejohns 
had to go without her ; after all she didn't care very much, 
for it would have meant leaving Stella and losing touch with 
the thrilling life she was living ; she felt very little inspira- 
tion for seeing ancient tombs and Egyptian temples when 
she could almost take part, so to speak, in the making of 
Egyptian history. The very fact that, ^67^1ike Stella, the 
East was not her home, made everything that belonged 
to it absorbingly fascinating. What revolted Stella and 
made her heart-sick often thrilled Nancy, because it was 

204 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 205 

all a part of the mystery and* spell of the East, even when 
it was horrible. 

When Vernon was well enough to be moved he was 
ordered off to a sanatorium at Helouan, and it was 
during his time of convalescence there that Stella begged 
her mother to take Nancy and herself for a short visit 
to Medinat-al Fayyum. Instead of staying in the town 
itself, with Girgis Boutros and his aunt and cousin in 
their white villa, with its green jalousies, on the bank of 
the Bahr Yusuf, they induced Girgis to make arrangements 
for them to sleep in the sportsman's hotel or rest-house, 
which is built on piles over the historical Lake Moeris, 
which lies out in the desert some miles from Medinat-al 
Fayyum. 

It was a roasting hot afternoon when Girgis, attired in 
the most perfect riding kit of English build, met them at 
the station. Nancy, who had only seen him once, in correct 
calling attire in Cairo (his mother had a fine house there 
and was very particular about her son's social etiquette), 
was not prepared for his appearance in immaculate brown 
riding-boots, the latest thing in riding coats and breeches, 
surmounted with the inevitable scarlet tarbush which he 
always wore. It made an odd combination, but the costume 
suited him perfectly and he knew how to wear it. He told 
them that he wished to take them to his aunt's house 
in the town — he lived with his aunt — to have tea before 
escorting them to Lake Moeris. Feeling very tired and hot, 
they gladly consented to do as he had arranged. When 
his three visitors were seated in a luxuriously appointed, 
but strangely old-fashioned, landau, Girgis mounted his 
Arab mare. It was the most beautiful beast that Nancy had 
ever seen : she couldn't think of anything else, as it almost 
danced by their side ; its curved neck, its long, fiowing tail, 
its delight in its own beauty, kept her in a constant state 
of acclamation. In the Egyptian sunlight both man and 
beast were objects to thrill the senses. Girgis, who knew 
that he set off the Arab's beauty to its greatest advantage, 
did not betray by even a smile that he was in the seventh 
heaven of delight. Stella he still worshipped she was his 
divinity, he hungered to own her, to make her his wife — but 
this flower-like girl appealed to his imagination like a garden 


206 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


where exotic flowers wafted their fragrance to him over 
cool waters. Her fair throat and delicate face, her laughing 
eyes of lapis-blue, could make him forget that her people 
and her very brother belonged to the hated race who 
despised him. From the moment when she placed her 
soft -palmed hand in his he had succumbed, her fragrant 
personality had lifted him into realms of Oriental delight. 

As they drove from the station and passed from a hideous 
bareness, mingled with dust and flies and Eastern smells, 
to the cool river banks, bordered with spreading willows and 
swaying tamarisks, Nancy's quick eye and intuitive brain 
taught her more than years of explanation could have done. 
She already knew that in the East, where strong contrasts 
are for ever forcing themselves upon you, you need never 
be surprised at anything : Girgis's tarhush, worn with 
English riding-boots and tweed clothes, were illustrative of 
the fact. So when they stopped in front of an imposing 
villa, which seemed to her very French and un-Eastern 
with its white walls and green jalousies, she was not the 
least astonished when the door was opened by a small 
boy of about seven years of age who looked like an un- 
feathered starling which had not yet digested its early 
meal of worms. 

Girgis hurried them into a sitting-room on the ground 
floor which had not a trace of anything Eastern about it — 
it was the most uninteresting, uninviting room Nancy had 
ever been in. Photographs in silver- wire frames, tied up 
with bright yellow ribbons, were conspicuous on every 
article of furniture which could hold a picture frame ; 
heavy albums, bound in plush, lay on ovaJ-shaped maple- 
wood tables. A set of stiff gold chairs, too uncomfortable 
to sit upon, were planted in a row round the walls ; the 
cool view of the flowing Bahr Yusuf was entirely hidden 
by stiff Nottingham-lace curtains. Girgis knew that the 
room was hideous, but neither of the girls knew that he 
did. He also knew that his aunt would appear in a few 
minutes in an appalling tea-gov/n of purple flannelette, but 
he might have thought it a creation of Worth's for ail the 
girls could guess by his expression when she entered the 
room. He knew that the whole business of afternoon tea 
would shock Stella unutterably, but he was not ashamed : 
they were his relations and her near connections ; Stella's 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


207 


neck must be bent ! He knew that the etiquette of serving 
and offering afternoon tea correctly, and the wearing of 
charming clothes, was only a matter of opportunity . . . 
and his aunt had had none ; she had lived in A1 Fayyum 
all her life. He knew that with such limited surroundings 
Stella would have had no better idea of how to entertain 
English visitors, or how to keep a European house, than 
his aunt and cousin ; he also knew that, as his aunt and 
cousin had lived in the wealthy oasis city of A1 Fayyum, 
they were much more advanced in their views and mode 
of living than his other cousins who lived almost like 
Mohammedans in Upper Egypt. 

When at last his aunt came awkwardly into the room, 
followed by her heavy-featured daughter, Stella could 
scarcely believe that they were people of the same rank 
in life as Girgis, for Mrs. Ha Boutros did not look the 
least Eastern in type, she seemed to Stella more like a 
second-rate Italian inn-keeper's wife than an Egyptian ; 
but her voice was soft and her clear pronunciation of 
English was refined. Mrs. Lekejian, who had only seen 
her once before, many years ago, greeted her with a charm- 
ing air of family relationship — she had heard many things 
from Girgis about his aunt which had made her respect 
and like her very much. But Mrs. Boutros was very shy, 
and this made conversation extremely difficult. Her 
daughter, who was literally too shy to speak, sat on the 
edge of her gilt chair close to Nancy and looked at her with 
the surprised eyes of a cow. Nancy did not know what 
to speak to her about ... if Girgis had not been there she 
could have got on better, for she would have treated her 
almost like a child ; but if she did he might think her 
condescending. Anything like intimacy was hopeless, for 
the girl simply answered ‘‘ yes " and no " to her remarks 
about A1 Fayyum. Topics soon became exhausted. Girgis, 
realizing Nancy's difficulty, asked if tea was coming ; it 
arrived just as he spoke. 

A huge silver tea-tray was carried round the room to 
each person by a trembling Coptic maid-servant, whose 
complexion and features were so beautiful that Nancy could 
scarcely resist speaking about her ; in these dreadful 
surroundings she was an amazing contrast and relief. She 
wore a native dress of clinging black, with her hair modestly 


208 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


hidden under a bright blue handkerchief. Nancy wondered 
why her mistress could not see how sweet she looked com- 
pared to her own daughter ; Girgis must, she felt sure, for 
he had perfect taste in his own details of dress. After the 
maid had handed round the tea, which was cold and weak, 
Miss Boutros rose from her chair awkwardly and offered her 
guests some of Huntley and Palmer's mixed biscuits, which 
were piled up in a little wire basket decorated with the 
same bright yellow ribbon. Stella and Nancy dared not 
let their eyes meet. It seemed as if their hostess must 
have gone to some shop where they only sold objects made 
of twisted wire, and to another, where they only sold yellow 
ribbon. In a land where old dishes of exquisite colours and 
shapes are to be bought for a few pence it seemed a dreadful 
perversion of taste to be drinking tea out of vile Japanese 
cups and eating biscuits off twisted-wire baskets. 

Mrs. Lekejian had tried various topics of conversation 
with the mother, who was not quite so shy as her daughter. 
She knew absolutely nothing about the ancient or modern 
history of the town she lived in, though, as far as both 
Stella and her mother could discover, she had never been 
out of A1 Fayyum in her life ; indeed, she seldom went out 
of the house. Yet she did not give them the impression of 
being bored or duU. Even the affair of Vernon's illness 
and ]\Ir. Lekejian 's attempted murder did not break the 
formality of her responses. The details of it were discussed, 
and the Asiut election disturbances were touched upon — 
but in each instance it was Mrs. Lekejian who did all the 
talking and her hostess who only responded with little 
artificial exclamations of praise of Vernon and horror of 
the fanatic's deed. It seemed to Stella, as she listened to 
her mother talking to the oddly dressed woman at her side, 
that nothing really interested the latter except illustrated 
papers, for she saw piles and piles of “ Je Sais Tout " and 

Comic Cuts " on a table near the window. 

When the tea, a dreadful concoction made with unboiled 
water, was drunk, and a few more platitudes had been 
exchanged, Stella said she thought they ought to be getting 
on their way, as her mother was very tired. Their hostess, 
who was obviously relieved that their visit was at an end, 
did not attempt to detain them. She was delighted that 
Girgis had brought them, and she felt proud that such a 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


209 


beautiful girl as Stella was her own nephew's first cousin, 
but she nevertheless felt relieved that they were going ; 
she was longing to discuss every point of their looks and 
dress with her daughter, who, poor thing, was not so well 
satisfied with her best clothes as she had been before their 
arrival. With a jealous woman's double-sight she had 
seen that Girgis was in love with Stella and that he was 
enthralled with Nancy's beauty, though Nancy's fairness 
was to her too strange to be beautiful. She had heard 
of fair Western women in romances, but she had never 
imagined that a living woman could look so unreal as the 
English girl seemed in her Eastern eyes. 

When they were once more comfortably seated in the 
carriage, Nancy gave a sigh of relief. She did not like to be 
the first to say anything, because, after all, these people 
were near connections of Stella's and first cousins of 
Girgis ; but when he was out of hearing, which was very 
soon, for his Arab mare could not be induced to go at their 
driving pace, Mrs. Lekejian said to Stella, “ What a pity ! 
Why ever can't they be contented to live in the old style ? 
I wonder Girgis doesn't see it." 

‘‘ I'm sure he does, mother," Stella said ; ‘‘ but he thinks 
that living in the European style is a step towards progress 
and regeneration, and you know how keen he is about all 
that sort of thing. It certainly gives the women something 
to do, for there's more to look after, with lace curtains 
and carpets and all those hideous ornaments about." She 
laughed at the memory of their visit, but it was a kindly 
laugh. 

“ How would they live if it was in the native way ? " 
Nancy asked. ‘‘Not like harem women, doing absolutely 
nothing ? " 

“ Oh, no, but quite differently," Mrs. Lekejian said. 
“ The old native houses were lovely, and oh, these terrible 
dresses bought at Greek shops, and these uncomfortable 
chairs 1 " 

“ Had the Copts fine houses like the Arabs ? " Nancy 
asked. 

“ Well, no, they hadn't " — she paused — “ for in the old 
days (when these splendid houses were built) the Christians 
were too poor — they were never allowed to have any money ; 
but now why can't they build their grand new houses in 

14 


210 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


the old way, and live in them in the old style ? They would 
feel at home in them and look much less absurd. That poor 
girl ! . . she sighed. 

Nancy had seen some of the glorious old Arab houses in 
Cairo, hidden away in unexpected quarters, but she some- 
how had indefinitely associated their beauty in her mind 
with the fact that they were Mohammedan buildings ; she 
did not know that in most respects the Copts in the old 
days lived like their Moslem neighbours and would have had 
houses similar to theirs if they had had the money to buy 
them . . . she did not understand that their wealth was a 
thing of later growth, that, like all despised races, they 
had made their money off usury and by diligent hoarding. 
Persecution begets undesirable qualities of intelligence. 

Nancy thought for a moment and then, turning to 
Stella, she said : ‘‘I did think Girgis was sweet to them, 
didn't you ? He was so well bred, so dignified. I'm sure I 
should have been a snob and done my best to show visitors 
that I knew how awful they were." 

Stella looked pleased, and so did her mother. “ Girgis 
is quite extraordinary," they both said ; ‘‘ one never knows 
what he feels ; with all his revolutionary ideas he's a true 
philosopher." 

‘‘ Oh," Nancy said, ‘‘ I think he is awfully sensitive — I'm 
sure he is ; but they are his people, it was his loyalty to them." 

The Arab mare pranced up to them at that moment. 
Girgis managed to keep her within speaking distance ; he 
looked very happy. “ My aunt was greatly pleased to 
see you." He addressed Stella : ‘‘ She asked me to thank 
you for honouring her." (Girgis very seldom now said 

If you please," Stella had chaffed him out of it.) ‘‘ She 
thinks you are very beautiful and high-minded." 

‘‘ Oh," Stella said, smiling good-naturedly at his odd 
expressions, “ you mustn't make me vain ! It was your 
aunt who deserved our thanks." 

“ Excuse me, but I could not make you vain." 

Stella laughed again. ‘‘ Why not ? " she said. I am 
only human." 

“ Because what I think and what my cousins think could 
not make you vain, and you know it ; and I thank you also 
for coming," he bowed to Nancy. It was not gay for you. 
I am sorry." 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


211 


“ Oh, but I enjoyed my visit,"" she said ; they"re very 
kind. I wish we could have stayed longer, so that we could 
all have got over the shy feeling. Your cousin must know 
such a lot of things that would interest us. I wanted to 
make friends and talk with her about all sorts of things."" 

‘‘ They have been very curious to see my cousin Hadassah, 
now they are satisfied. For many days they will talk about 
your visit."" His un-mirthful Egyptian smile broke the 
severity of his features. ‘‘ My cousin has only seen painted 
pictures of virgins like you "" — ^he looked at Nancy ; ‘‘ she did 
not understand that in a country where there is much 
moisture the women grow up like flowers ; they are as 
sweet to the nostrils as almond blossom in spring. And so 
you must excuse her ; I saw her look very much."" 

‘‘ You say these things so prettily that even when I 
know you don"t mean them I enjoy hearing them,"" Nancy 
said gaily, ‘‘ but I want to feel like almond blossom in the 
spring."" Her laughter was so infectious and mirthful 
that it inflamed his quick blood. His mare responded to his 
mood : her nostrils distended, her tail curved, she danced 
with the pride of life. . . . ‘‘ Englishmen don"t know how 
to pay compliments ; they never say these poetical things 
unless they think the woman they are addressing is vain 
and foolish."" 

But I speak the truth, if you please "" — ^his eyes met 
Stella"s as his old habit of speech slipped out — “ it is no 
compliment ; you carry the sweetness of white night- 
flowers into the un watered desert."" 

His grave air made Nancy laugh again, but seeing that 
he was serious, she smiled her thanks. 

“ You think, do you not, that my cousin Hadassah is 
very beautiful ? "" Nancy nodded her head. And Hadassah 
told me that you were like an English rose. Why is it then 
not true if I say you are both beautiful to me ? "" 

Mrs. Lekejian and Stella joined in Nancy"s laughter, for 
Girgis had certainly gained his point. They had left far 
behind them the precincts of the oasis city, with its dull 
bazaars full of cheap European goods for ^^/i-European 
customers, and its streets with fine European villas, built 
out of the wealth which has belonged to the people of 
A1 Fayyum ever since the day when Joseph, the con- 
troller of Pharaoh "s household, so legend says, bestowed 


212 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


upon the surrounding country the network of canals and 
reservoirs which have made the Fayyum famous as an 
agricultural centre for aU Egypt. They had almost for- 
gotten the cool waters of the Bahr Yusuf, for they were 
nearing the hideous ruins of Arsinoe, of the famous Croco- 
dilopolis of the Greeks, and Hadassah was trying to induce 
Nancy to give her attention to the fact. Nancy said she 
would gladly give her attention to it when any scenery 
began, but she refused to call a far-extending dust-heap, 
city rubbish-shoots in fact, ‘‘ ancient remains.'" If Stella 
said that they were the ruins of the once-famous site, she 
would take her word for it, but look at them she would not 
while there were really interesting things to see all round 
her — agricultural methods which in all probability Joseph 
had introduced into the country, and coats of many colours, 
which he himself might have worn. 

When Stella told her that the sacred crocodiles wore 
bangles and were fed on marrons glaces and other delicacies, 
her interest was roused ; but as every sign of the lake in 
which the sacred beasts were kept had disappeared, and in 
its place an Arab cemetery had also flourished and passed 
away, she would not waste time over inspecting the un- 
savoury place. Stella longed to stop the carriage and 
walk over the ruins, but her mother dissuaded her — it 
was very hot, and the dust which she would stir up might 
hurt her eyes and throat, while the fleas would be really 
awful. Nancy said that the ‘‘ ash-pit " in Cairo which 
Stella called the ruins of “Fustat" was bad enough, but 
that from its heights you could see something beautiful in 
the surrounding country, and you could, if you took the 
trouble, pick up pieces of ancient pottery as rich in tone as 
the jewels which were discovered in the famous tomb of 
Queen Thi ; but here at Crocodilopolis there was absolutely 
nothing to be seen but the worst kind of hideousness. 
She asked Girgis if he did not agree with her, which of 
course he did : the splendour of ancient Egypt meant 
nothing to him except as a token of the country's future 
possibilities — if it once had been great it could be great again. 
And so they left behind them the site of the ancient Arsinoe, 
which in the reign of Ptolemy II. was the capital of Upper 
desert the dazzling heat was moving like 
a wave over the country ; the long, dusty road was black 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


213 


with market people coming towards them on camels, on 
donkeys, and on foot ; the heavy necklaces and anklets 
of the women showed the wealth of the country and 
caught the sunlight as they walked. It was all intensely 
Eastern, and, as Nancy remarked, the “ limit "" was reached 
when a porcupine instead of a rabbit scurried across their 
path into the dust of the desert. 

As the hours passed, however, and there was little to 
break the monotony of the endless processions of black- 
robed women, whose trailing garments looked wholly 
unpractical for agricultural labour, and the long string of 
camels walking as though they were all one beast, at the 
same pace, with the same movements, and the same lofty 
indifference, they were not sorry to arrive at the little 
hotel which has been built for sportsmen on piles over the 
lake. They had to climb an outside stair like a ladder to 
reach the front door. A cry of delight burst from Nancy^s 
lips as she saw the cool interior where they were to dine : 
the canvas walls were hung with the usual Egyptian 
decorations, the animal gods of the ancients, and gay texts 
from the Koran, cut out in brilliant shades of yellows and 
greens and blues, and stitched on to red cotton. At intervals 
there were openings in the walls to admit the cool breeze 
from the lake and show inviting glimpses of softly moving 
tamarisks and low-flying water-birds. The dinner-table 
was decorated with crimson roses which Stella knew her 
cousin Girgis must have ordered the day before from 
A1 Fayyum, and comfortable couches ran all round the 
room, which was long and narrow, and not unlike the 
cabin of a ship. The glimpses of the lake which surrounded 
it on all sides added to the impression and delighted each 
one of the party as they sank gratefully on to the divans. 

Hadassah sat next to her cousin ; in a low voice she 
said to him, Girgis, dear, you are so kind.'" She laid her 
hand lightly on his arm, but she felt him tremble under 
her touch, and quickly removed it. ‘'We are enjoying 
ourselves so much, and I understand how much trouble 
you have taken. All this is perfectly delightful." 

“ But you are not happy," he said : his eyes read into 
her very mind. All her attempts to appear gay had not 
deceived him ; nothing ever deceived Girgis. 

“ I have been anxious about father and Vernon," she said ; 


214 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


“ the change here will do me good/" She turned her eyes 
away, his unnerved her. 

“ You are unhappy,"" he repeated. 

Mrs. Lekejian and Nancy had put their heads outside 
the canvas opening ; they could not hear what Stella said. 
“ Why do you say it ? "" she said ; “ I wish you wouldn"t "" 
— but she had not denied it. 

“ I know why you are unhappy — ^it is not anxiety for 
your father — but for to-day please try to forget."" His 
voice was so gentle that the smile she bestowed upon him 
was appreciative of his kindness. It w^as never the least 
good to attempt to lie to Girgis, for he could read her 
through like an open book. 

Quite suddenly he said : “ Since I have seen his sister 
I do not hate him so much."" 

Hush ! "" Stella said. She looked nervously at him ; 
an unacknowledged fear took definite shape in her mind 
as she did so. 

“ No ! "" he said, ‘‘ I do not love Miss Nancy. If I had 
never seen you I would have desired her, but not now. 
You exhaust my senses : I have none for any other w^oman. 
But she is pure and beautiful, and she is his sister. How 
is such a thing possible ? "" 

‘‘ Have you already forgotten what we owe to Vernon ? 
You should love him for it : when I think that but for him 
we should not have had father, I feel that I could lay my 
very soul in his hands to do just as he liked with."" 

Girgis became excited. ‘‘ And what did he do, if you 
please ? Only what any man would have done, only what 
no man could not have done. He had the good chance 
to be the man chosen to do this thing . . . while /, who 
long to serve you, was only a few yards away. Why has he 
all the fortune ? Now you will feel that whatever he does, 
or thinks, you must bear with it ; you will give him your 
soul. ... I would have saved your father and died for 
him, if only to win tenderness always from your eyes 
when you thought of me."" 

Girgis, why do you still think of me like that ? . . . try 
not to."" 

When you loved Vernon Thorpe could you have made 
yourseK not love him ? Who can do these things ? We 
cannot help love, we cannot help love."" 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


215 


Stella noticed that he had said when ” you loved Vernon, 
but she ignored the inference. “ No, no,"' she said, ‘‘ one 
can't help loving, I know that, but you only think you 
love me, I'm sure you do — you gave yourself no time, 
you didn't know me ; you said you would marry me the 
first time we met. Do you remember ? " she tried to 
treat the matter more lightly. 

“ Because you came like lightning into my heart, and, 
like the full moon, the mystery of your beauty raised my 
love to worship. You are my divinity." 

His romantic manner of expressing his love for her 
brought the tender smile that he loved to see into her 
eyes. In spite of the fact that her Western upbringing had 
imbued her with the feeling that love poetically expressed 
was seldom, if ever, deeply felt, she was conscious that her 
cousin had a feeling for her which was far removed from 
the sensuous passion of most Egyptians. She felt sorry 
for him, and troubled about how to treat him ; at the same 
time the relief she experienced in the fact that Nancy, 
with her glowing personality and vitality, had not inspired 
him with an overwhelming passion, outbalanced her sorrow 
that he was still romantically attached to herself. He 
was very attractive this afternoon in his capacity as host, 
and his good qualities appealed to Stella none the less 
for Nancy's very obvious approval of him. 

They had good appetites for the beautifully cooked 
dinner, which he had personally supervised. He knew 
Stella's likes and dislikes, and as she watched him while 
he attended to their various wants, she could scarcely 
believe that his home life was spent in the absurd sur- 
roundings they had seen that afternoon ; yet, in spite of 
his ease of manner and perfect familiarity with Western 
methods of entertaining, she could not think of him as 
her cousin by blood, he was still one of the enigmas of 
Egypt. That Vernon had saved her father's life was 
never long absent from Stella's thoughts — she was in 
return ready to lay down her life for him ; but the deed 
had not brought them really any closer together, for in 
her gratitude she had placed herself on a new and almost 
strange footing towards her lover. He implored her to 
forget her gratitude towards him, to treat him as she had 
done before the accident — in her tenderness towards him 


216 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


he missed the old fire of her first passion, he longed for 
the return of her independence of spirit. If Michael 
Ireton had not spoken to her, and she had not allowed 
herself to be false in thought to her lover at the very 
moment when he was offering up his own life for her 
father’s — she might perhaps have retained her former 
independence, but not now ! Now she must make amends 
for that moment of sudden surrender to the man who had 
taught her what his deeper nature knew of a love's devotion 
for the woman he prized. 

After dinner Girgis disappeared, and they did not see 
him again until they said good night to him : they little 
imagined that he was supervising the erection of mosquito- 
curtains on their various beds, and seeing that their bed- 
rooms were as attractive as he could make them. With 
the awful masterfulness of an ancient Egyptian he had 
insisted upon mosquito-netting being produced from some- 
where. It had been forgotten, but it was produced ! A 
native runner had been to the Fayyum and back in an 
incredibly short space of time. His brown body, naked 
but for the meagerest loin-cloth, was now steaming like a 
roast of beef which had just been pulled from the oven, 
and his tongue was parched to a cinder, but the mosquito- 
netting for the rich “ Seti " had been procured. If Stella 
had seen the poor wretch panting on a circular prayer-mat 
made of straw, at the back door of the inn, she would have 
thought her security from mosquito-bites dearly bought. 
But Girgis feared that malarious mosquitoes might hover 
round their lake dw^elling, and after all, if the native had 
died from exhaustion, his place in the world could be filled 
at dawn by a new man. 

It was only nine o'clock when they went to bed, because 
their day had begun very early; but Nancy and Stella, 
who shared one queer little room, talked until at least 
an hour later. \^en women have spent the whole day 
together their real confidences only begin when their hair 
comes down at night : going to bed is like the P.S. of many 
people's letters. Their mosquito-curtains prevented them 
sitting on the edge of their beds in their customary fashion, 
even when their rooms afforded comfortable easy chairs, 
so they sat on the cool straw-matted floor, with their arms 
bugging their knees. 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


217 


Nancy's flood of golden hair, which entirely hid her face, 
made Stella's by contrast seem very dark, just as her gay 
and mischievous face proved that Stella's had grown very 
serious for her years. In Nancy's eyes Stella now resembled 
Rossetti's ‘‘ La belle dame sans merci " — especially when 
her hair was let down for brushing. 

Suddenly Nancy put her chin on her knees, and for a 
moment her gay voice became serious. “ SteUa," she 
said, ‘‘ how does it feel to have three men in love with you 
at one time ? 

Stella, to hide her embarrassment, said, “ Don't be an 
ass, Nancy." 

Nancy sighed. “ I'd be quite contented with one. 
What's the use of being pretty if no one loves you ? " 

“ One of the three who, you imagine, are in love with 
me, do you mean ? " 

“ No." Nancy's eyes dropped, ‘‘ No," she repeated 
slowl}’', ‘‘ I'm not a Ptolemy, so I couldn't marry my 
own brother, and Michael Ireton . . ." she paused and 
looked at Stella, who instantly unclasped her hair and 
let it fall over her face. Her apparent impatience did 
not unnerve Nancy, who continued, “ Michael Ireton is 
too monogamous — ^he'd make me unfaithful in a week; 
while Girgis . . ." she gave a little shiver, “ oh ! he'd 
terrify me. He might turn out to be a Bluebeard." 

Stella looked at her suspiciously. . . . “Why ... I 
thought you admired him ? " 

‘‘ So I do, and I like him most awfully, all we know of 
him, but neither you nor I really know him, or will ever 
know him." 

Stella nodded her head. “ That's what I feel." 

Nancy always spoke as though she and Stella belonged 
to the same race of people. “ He knows far more about 
us than we know about him — I mean the human part of 
our natures. He may not have met many Englishwomen, 
but he has the ancients' understanding of human nature. 
You feel it ... it rather troubles me sometimes." 

Stella said very gravely : “ We know only the civilized 
part of him, which is the lesser part." 

‘‘ Of course, that's all we ever know about any one," 
Nancy said ; “ it's all we allow people to know ... we 
hardly know the ‘ other part ' of our own selves, do we ? " 


218 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


“ But with Girgis the uncivilized part belongs to a 
strange people. . . . Stella paused abruptly in the middle 
of her speech ; her hair still veiled her face. 

‘‘ Well ? "" Nancy said, go on.'' 

“ I often try to visualize the Girgis we don't know, the 
Girgis who has nothing to do with Coptic schools, and 
electric ploughs, and automatic wells, and brown riding- 
boots, and afternoon teas ; the Girgis who still in his heart 
worships ‘ Sebek,' the Crocodile God of A1 Fayyum ; the 
Girgis who would have offered up his own sister as a victim 
to the Nile for the propitiation of its bountiful overflowing." 

Nancy shivered. 

‘‘ He is, with all his love of progress and hunger for 
modernity and for the regeneration of Egypt, a reincarna- 
tion of an ancient Pharaoh — I see it so often in him. He 
wears his clothes beautifully — and how well he chooses 
them ! — but they don't really hide the inscrutable statue 
of the Pharaoh he really is, do they ? " 

‘‘ No," Nancy said, “ not a bit." 

“ There is nothing living," Stella said slowly, “ that 
I have seen in all Egy^t so Eastern as my own cousin 
Girgis — ^isn't it strange ? And the more he adopts the fine 
veneer of European civilization, the more Eastern he 
appears to me." 

“ Aren't you very proud of it ? I feel so terribly modern 
when I am with him, so entirely outside the ‘ Great Classic 
Belt ' that dear Naughtie used to speak about." She was 
examining Stella's pretty almond nails and slender fingers. 

Stella caught her hand tightly in hers : “ You're a dar- 
ling, Nancy ; you've been so sweet, we all adore you." 
Her voice shook. 

“ Oh, Stella, don't speak like that ! It is all of you who 
have been adorable to me." 

‘‘You know everything and understand everything now, 
you have met my relations on my father's side : are you not 
just a little ashamed of the connection ? " 

Nancy took the veil of dark hair in her hands and 
drew it away from Stella's face so that she could look into 
her eyes while she answered. “ Not in the least," she 
said slowly ; “I hate the beastly stuck-up English people 
who can't see the difference there is between you, dearest, 
and all your clever family, and the ordinary common 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


219 


Levantines and natives whom both you and I abhor. 
Who could be ashamed of Girgis ? ” She spoke with spirit. 

‘‘ I"m not/" Stella said, “ but I know the way in which 
English people are taught to regard all races who belong to 
the Eastern hemisphere : they never even try to understand 
them ; they class the good and the bad all together in one 
lump, when it comes to anything like intimacy. Lots of 
the English officials speak very highly of many natives who 
hold Government posts, and even of some of the wealthy 
landowners ; but when they are asked to try to understand 
them as friends and companions they instantly say, ‘ They 
are impossible." The Bishop of Khartoum was not afraid 
to speak very strongly on the subject a day or two ago. 
The English will always be hated if they intend always 
to despise us as intimates, if they continue to say that 
we are all impossible because of the many who are . . . 
Vernon didn"t want you to visit us : we almost quarrelled 
over your coming."" 

“ Good heavens ! Is that why you wrote that letter 
and sent the wire which I never got ? "" 

“ Yes, it was to please him."" 

‘‘ And I came in spite of everything. How can you 
love such a snob ?..."" she looked into Stella"s eyes search- 
ingly, and said again . . . “ Why do you love him ? "" 

Stella let her hair screen her face again as she bent her 
head . . . ‘‘ Hush, Nancy, don"t ! You shouldn"t speak of 
him like that — ^how can you ! ... we never know why we 
love ; but surely, now, he is worth loving. . . ."" 

“ I couldn"t marry a man who was a snob. You think 
he was frightfully brave because he saved your father . . . 
well, if he hadn't done it, he"d have been a coward — that"s 
another way of looking upon his act of heroism. . . 
Nancy "s anger at her brother"s attitude towards Stella"s 
relations had for the moment wiped out all her former 
pride in his act of cool-headed bravery. “ Fancy being 
ashamed of anything that belonged to you ! "" she went on 
hotly. ‘‘ I thought Girgis"s cousins were funny and awfully 
awkward in their stuffy, ugly European clothes, and so 
did you ! . . . but just think what we should have looked 
like in their eyes if we had chosen to wear Eastern 
dresses without knowing how they should be put on ! I 
guess we"d have made an even greater muddle of it than 


220 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


they did ; besides, isn't it awful to let ourselves care so much 
about these trivial things. I felt all the time that both 
the mother and daughter must know about all sorts of 
interesting things that they were too shy to introduce into 
conversation. Think of how little chance they have had 
to feel at ease in strange society." 

“ It's the trivial things that weigh down the scales of 
life . . Stella said quietly ; ‘‘ if we could rise above trivial 
things life would be comparatively easy." 

“ That's true," Nancy said thoughtfully, ‘‘ but I can't 
believe that my own brother didn't want me to visit his 
future wife's relations. It makes me sick to think of it, 
and ashamed of him." 

‘‘ But it's quite true. He urged me to go home and wait 
for him in England, so that I should not have to mix with 
my father's people . . . it's all dreadful, Nancy, and I want 
to do things he'd hate ... I want to do all I can with money 
and education to help to raise the women, for if the women 
were better educated and were treated with greater respect 
by the men, they could do far more for the advancement of 
Egypt than all the acts of parliaments and public bodies 
put together that try to put down vice and dirt and horrible- 
ness : for you mustn't be mistaken about things . . . out 
here they are horrible . . ." she made a face of disgust. . . . 
“ Cairo is horrible ; really the visitors only see the fair side 
of it, but the truth would horrify you. . . ." She sighed. 
“ VlTien scarcely any of the women can read, and when 
they have no idea of a moral training for their sons, and are 
even without the most ignorant sense of decency in the 
matter of cleanliness, what can you expect ? . . . Vernon 
never wants you to know that I belong to that side of 
Cairo really — the native side, I mean." 

Nancy's temper was up in a flash, her violet eyes were as 
black as onyx : “ Know what ? I should like to know : know 
that your brother and father have twice the brains that 
he has, that they are both too well bred to be the snob that 
he is, that when he's with them he must, if he has any 
feelings at all, know how ignorant he is compared to them 
both. Oh ! don't you see that he's a walking monument 
of Anglo-Saxon vanity and prejudice ? I don't see how 
you can go on loving him. I saw Nicolas looking at him the 
other night when he said quite proudly that he had never 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


221 


even heard of, let alone read a word of ‘Omar Khayyam" 
in his life. Nicolas couldn"t believe it . . She looked at 
Stella for a reply. 

“ Don"t you want me to go on loving him, dear ? "" 

Nancy"s anger broke down. “ Yes, of course I do ; 111 be 
awfully sick if you ever fall out of love with him ; if you 
were lost to the family it would be ghastly."" 

“ Then why say things like that ? "" 

“ I only say them because I know you always will love 
him in spite of everything. You"re so blind when you care 
for people : I suppose that"s why they say love is blind."" 

Stella began brushing her hair very diligently. In the 
days that had passed since the attempted murder of her 
father she had almost succeeded in banishing MichaeTs 
dominating personality from her thoughts, and was living 
once more in a dream of imaginary love for Vernon . . . 
he had saved her father"s life, and by so doing had un- 
consciously surrounded himself with an atmosphere of 
heroic romance. Stella could no longer think of him dis- 
passionately, for there was always the protest of self- 
accusation, that she had been unworthy of his loyalty to 
her people, and of his love for herself ! A thousand times 
she had longed to have the words she had said to Michael 
Ireton unsaid, and yet stronger than her wish she knew 
was the unformed desire to see him once more ... if only 
to explain to him that now and for ever more she was 
Vernon"s, if only to try to unsay the words she had scarcely 
said. Yet, after all, what had she said except to ask him 
to stay ? Yet she knew that no arguing, no banishing of 
the astonishment she heard in his voice when she said the 
few words, “ Oh, don"t go,"" would quiet the “ still, small 
voice "" — that still, small voice of conscience which has a 
thousand lives. Would it always go on reminding her of 
the “ world of words "" which had been expressed in his 
voice and in hers ! If her soul could have spoken to Nancy 
it would have said, “ The man I once loved bores me : he 
is your brother ; take him away, let everything be finished 
between us, let me pay for his deed of heroism in another 
way than by becoming his wife. . . ."" But the soul did not 
speak, and the woman was too eagerly engaged in de- 
ceiving herself and clothing her Fallen God with the 
garments of Love to allow it a chance. 


222 


A WIPE OUT OP EGYPT 


Nancy, little dreaming of the thoughts Stella was hiding 
behind her veil of dark hair, said : “ Tell me, Stella, has 
Nicolas ever been in love ? "" 

‘‘ I think he once cared for a girl, I'm nearly sure he 
did ; mother has said things vaguely about her, but he's 
never mentioned a word of it to me ; he is very reserved, 
as you can see." 

“ What happened, I wonder . . . was she an English girl ?" 
If Stella could have seen Nancy's eyes as she asked the 
question, she would have learned that the asking of that 
question was the postscript " of the girl's conversation. 

“ I think he'd hate me to speak about it." Stella 
paused . . . ‘‘ Yes, the girl was English, he knew her when 
he lived in Paris . . . she allowed him to get fond of 
her, and do everything for her, all that a devoted friend 
may do, I mean ; when he came to Cairo she got her mother 
to bring her out to Egypt. . . ." Stella was breathless ; her 
indignation had risen, but she was trying to speak in- 
differently. Nancy saw her emotion. In Cairo she . . . 
well, she dropped him ! " 

‘‘Little beast ! " Nancy hissed. “ What's become of her ? 
Does he love her still ? " 

“ She's married the heir to a baronetcy who is drinking 
himself to death." 

“ And does Nicolas still care ? " Nancy said persistently. 

“ No, I don't think so ; he was heart-hurt rather than 
heart-broken at the time even, but he was so badly hurt 
that he never trusts any woman now ; with all his gentleness 
of disposition he is dreadfully cynical. The girl looked so 
young and sympathetic, mother says, but she was really as 
hard as nails and as selfish as a man." 

Nancy picked up her brush and rose to her feet. . . • 
“ Then if I fall in love with Nicolas I shall have to propose 
to him ? 

Stella caught hold of her feet and brought the girl 
toppling to the ground ; she caught her in her arms and held 
her like a child in them. “ Nancy," she cried, looking into 
the naughty eyes and laughing face . . . “ Nancy, you 
mustn't . . . promise me, Nancy, you won't play with him." 

“ Oh ! don't be alarmed," she said . . . “ your Nicolas is 
quite safe, he doesn't think me ‘ as sweet to the nostrils ' as 
Girgis does . . ." she went into a fit of laughter at the 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


223 


thought of Girgis's similes. . . . “ What fun it all is, Stella ! 
Girgis makes me scream, he's so quaint, and so delightfully 
poetic ; I can't imagine Vernon even thinking the things he 
says : English love-making is really very stupid, it's so lack- 
ing in imagination — don't you find it so ? " Nancy looked 
wickedly at Stella . . . “ I shouldn't think Vernon ever 
took the trouble to think out poetic speeches, does he ? " 
Stella blushed guiltily, for in her imagination it was not 
Vernon's form of English love-making to which her mind 
had flown, but the few fierce words Michael Ireton had 
spoken, Avords which had stirred more fire in her veins, and 
wakened more songs in her heart, than all the Oriental 
phraseology of Girgis at his best. She wished Nancy 
would stop talking and go to bed, for with the sudden 
opening of her memory to Michael Ireton's devouring eyes 
and the confession of his love, the woman in her was thun- 
dering at her senses, and she was ashamed ! 

But Nancy loved teasing. ‘‘ You're blushing ! I do 
believe he's better at it than I thought. I can only imagine 
him saying, ‘ I'm beastly fond of you, old girl,' and asking 
you to sit on his knee. Vernon, he likes even me to sit on 
his knee while he smokes his pipe and talks ..." Nancy 
sighed — talks and talks everlastingly about cricket and 
polo and golf — have you learnt to talk cricket yet ? Do 
you remember the day at Lord's when you thought the 
umpire in his white coat was the doctor in attendance ? " 
They both laughed at the memory of that terrible day 
when Stella had tried her best to please her lover by being 
interested in cricket . . . the love of sport which bestows an 
understanding of its slang and rules is inborn, it cannot be 
acquired. ‘‘ The sense " of games had been omitted in the 
making of Stella, and yet, like many women who do not care 
for games or sport, she had often attracted the sport- 
loving men. Her clean-cut limbs, her well-balanced figure, 
her proudly carried head appealed to their critical eye. 
They ought to have known that she was too graceful to be 
a really good sportswoman, for the really active English 
girl who is good at all games is seldom graceful, though her 
supple movements are pleasant to watch. 

It's aU so absurd," Nancy said, ‘‘ you classing yourself 
with the native life here ; you're not Egyptian, you're 
Syrian, and if you were, Egyptians aren't niggers ! " 


224 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


“ No, we're not Egyptians," Stella said slowly, “ we are 
what you English hate even more, we are Syrians, and 
Syrians are classed with the Jews and the usurers of the 
world generally. Our intelligence annoys you rather than 
pleases you . . she stopped abrupt^ . . . “ we belong to 
the Semitic races ! " 

Nancy gave a breathless little gasp. . . . “ Does . . . does 
your father lend money, Stella ? " 

‘‘ No, he never did, but Syrians do, and so do the Jews, 
because the Mohammedans can't, the Koran forbids it . . . 
but it doesn't prevent them borrowing." Stella smiled 
sarcastically. 

“ Are Mohammedans great gamblers, then ? " 

‘‘ Frightful." 

“ Does Girgis lend money ? " Nancy spoke timidly. 

“ No, rather not ; he does all he can to prevent young 
Egyptians from borrowing money . . . they mortgage their 
cotton-crops year after year . . . the money all goes on the 
‘ fleshpots of Egypt ' ... on the very things that the Pro- 
phet forbade. The young Egyptians who live in cities care 
for nothing but dress, horse-racing, and gambling . . . the 
Jews and Syrians are hated because they are careful and 
have made big fortunes by lending money at high interest 
to foolish gamblers . . . the Egyptians would always borrow 
money somehow and somewhere ! " 

“ But moneylending is horrid . . ." Nancy shivered . . . 
“ I'm glad Girgis never does it, aren't you ? " 

“ Yes, I am glad," Stella said, “ and thank God father 
abhors it." 

Both girls were silent for a few moments. 

“ You see what I mean," Stella said thoughtfully — “ that 
the regeneration of Egypt, if it ever comes to pass, must 
be effected by elevating the standard of womanhood." She 
paused. . . . “Of course they are far happier as they are," 
she said wearily, “ I know that ; but we must raise them, 
even if we awaken them to suffering . . . they have slept 
long enough, poor things." 

“ Do you think they are really happier as they are ? " 
Nancy asked in surprise. “ Why ? " 

“ I think they are, for they at least are unconscious of 
then* unhappiness . . . the enlightened woman is not. They 
don't know that they are ignorant, and filthy, and idle, 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


225 


and not fit to be the mothers of any race of men ; they don't 
know that Happiness is the carrot that is ever dangled before 
our noses . . . they imagine that the fortunate individuals 
who have sufficient wealth to purchase material indulgences 
actually taste the ‘ carrot ' and wallow in its goodness." 

“ Then, dear," Nancy said, “ why, oh, why waken them ? 
Why teach them that the carrot always eludes our teeth ; 
that we never chew it, however deserving we are ? " 

“ Why wake them ? " Stella said. “ Because every one 
must suffer for a big cause, and surely the regeneration of 
their nation is a big enough one . . . the ancient Egyptians 
never could have been as great a race if their women had 
been as the women are to-day ... we know they weren't ; 
history tells us that they weren't ; the pictures on the walls 
show us that they weren't . . . the Egyptian mother of 
to-day is a disgrace to her land . . . why the men are as 
decent as they are is a marvel." 

“ The Koran," Nancy said : ‘‘ the men can read the 
Koran." 

“ Oh, the Egyptian youth of to-day pays very little 
attention to the Koran ... to escape military service he 
goes through a course of education at El-Azhar, the Moham- 
medan University, where he has to study the Koran, but 
when he is through his course he shakes it off. . . . El-Azhar," 
Stella said dreamily, ‘‘ is the most beautiful thing in Cairo. 
When I first went there I thought the students were the 
most devout and unworldly people in the world ... I 
have learnt differently . . . you must go there." 

“ I'd love to," Nancy said ; ''I adore seeing the people 
in their native element." 

“ El-Azhar," Stella said, is lijsie the Vatican : it's a vast, 
mediaeval organization which appeals to the emotions and 
annoys the intellect. Wlien I walk through its ancient 
courts full of devout students, apparently lost to the world 
in their search after Truth, I hate all modern progress, I 
loathe the idea of changing in any way this beautiful seat 
of learning which has gone on since . . ." she paused for 
dates . . . “well, since long before England sawthe Normans." 
Again she paused. “ But then, if you Were to go through 
the ' fish market ' at night, as I did disguised as a native 
woman once, you would want to open the gates of El-Azhar 
to even the most vulgar inroads of modernity . . . you would 
15 


226 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


want to let in the fresh air of progress . . . you would want 
to let in the idea that women, as the mothers of all nations, 
must hold an even higher position in the land than the 
men ; that, grafted on to the Prophet's teachings, must come 
the teachings of the world of to-day. If institutions such 
as the ‘ fish market ' are to be done away with, it must be 
by raising the standard of motherhood in this country. 
Reform can only be effected by giving men mothers who 
will teach them to respect their manhood and not vilify 
it, mothers who will teach their sons that women were not 
made for the sole purpose of satisfying passions and for 
the raising of males." 

“ Stella," Nancy said, why don't you teach the women 
these things ? You make things so understandable, you 
could do a lot of good by public speaking." Nancy had 
heard of the fish market," which, it is to be hoped, will 
sooner or later be a thing of the past m Cairo. 

“ I want to," Stella said, but it's so difficult — I want 
to more than I can teU you." 

“ I suppose it would be difficult," Nancy said, “ but I'd 
rather enjoy defying conventions, if they hindered a good 
cause ; I wouldn't care one scrap — not here any way." 

There are so many people to consider : there's father 
. . ." She was going to say ‘‘ and Vernon," but refrained . . . 

and even mother, I believe she would . . ." she left her 
sentence unfinished. 

Would your father object ? Really I don't believe it." 

“ Yes, I thiuk so . . . not that he would think it wrong, 
but you must always remember that at the back of every- 
thing . . ." she hesitated . . . father is an Eastern, and he 
knows the vile Oriental mind ... he knows the sort of 
things Arabs say and think about women who do anything 
in public, and he simply can't bear the idea of even the 
vilest and most ignorant of them thinking horrible thoughts 
about his own wife and child." 

“ I see," Nancy said ; it's awfully difficult." 

‘‘ Father is hated almost as much as if he was an Eng- 
lishman by all the different sects except perhaps by the 
‘ Independent Egyptian Party,' which is represented by 
the highest Coptic people, and I think he's respected by 
many of the influential and wealthy Moslems, whose aim 
is ‘ Representative Government in Egypt irrespective of 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


227 


race or religion/ because they know that he is not self- 
interested, that like them, his first wish is for Egypt/^ 

“ Does Girgis belong to that party ? "" 

Stella thought for a moment. “ He goes much farther ; 
he has many sympathies with the ‘Nationalists/ He used 
to belong to the Party of the People, as the moderate 
Nationalists are called . . . but you must remember that 
Girgis is awduUy young ; father is old enough to have seen 
the days of Turkish oppression/^ 

“ How old is Girgis ? '' 

“ Just my age . . . not twenty -three. 

Nancy laughed. “ Good heavens ! Stella, he"s only a boy/" 
“ You must remember that most native ‘ boys " of his 
age are married men and fathers. Twenty-three in an 
Egyptian is equivalent to thirty-three and more in an 
Englishman. Boys have all the independence of men : in 
Egypt they have often homes of their own at sixteen."" 

“ I'm sorry for Girgis,"" Nancy said ; “ you've given him 
a soul, and with the awakening comes the usual pain; 
he"s bound to suffer."" 

SteUa did not pretend not to understand what she meant, 
but said sadly : “I don't know how much he feels, I don't 
begin to understand him ; he likes me, I know, but how 
deeply or how lastingly it is impossible for us to judge. 
His life is unusual, so his feelings may be different from 
the ordinary Egyptian's." 

“ One can't fathom him," Nancy said, “ but anyhow, you 
have given him a new standard of womanhood ; he can 
never fall in love with an ignorant Copt after having loved 
you, and that's rather sad for him." 

“ He never would have ‘ fallen in love," my dear ... he 
would have married in due time and had sons, by Allah ! "" 
“ And after all that's man's chief end," Nancy said. 

“ The Moslem makes no pretence that it is not," Stella 
said. “ Sentiment is a Western idiosyncrasy : the East 
keeps sentiment for outside the walls of the harem." 

“ And aU his great aspirations, his theories ? " 

“ Oh, about them he's quite in earnest ; he is full of 
‘ sentiment and emotion ' for Egypt. Besides, cotton and 
the growing of it interests all native-born Egyptians ; it's 
in their blood, like wool is in Australians. He's deep in 
the great problem now of how to mature Egyptian cotton 


228 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


earlier in the season, before the boll-worm has time to ruin 
the crops. American cotton flowers quicker and the boll- 
worm has less time to harm it before the harvest . . . the 
boll-worm does its worst in September. The great question 
which is puzzling Egyptian cotton-experts is, Should 
Egyptian farmers introduce more American cotton into the 
country ? . . it produces a heavier head of cotton and is 

less affected by the boll-worm on account of its early 
ripening ... or should they stick to the superior Egyptian 
plant, which is the only cotton in the market which will 
mercerize satisfactorily ? Egyptian cotton fetches a far 
higher price in the market ... at the same time two or 
three successive years of bad boll-worm produce disastrous 
results. Girgis is, of course, all for preserving the Egyptian 
plant, and I think he^s right, for it has qualities no other 
cotton possesses . . . dear boy, he"s setting his whole mind 
to work on the problem of the boll-worm ... if his heart has 
other interests . . . and of how to produce by the crossing of 
the various plants natural hybrids which may in their turn 
produce a cotton which will retain the valuable charac- 
teristics of the Egyptian cotton and mature earlier. He's 
awfully interested in all the experiments of the agricultural 
society ; he's working with them privately, as well as on 
his own farm." 

How splendid ! " Nancy said. “ I wish he would tell me 
all about these things . . . they are much more interesting 
than foolish compliments, pretty as they are ! " 

“ Poor fellow, he's only used to the vapid minds of the 
native women, who never concern themselves about any- 
thing that matters ; but if you once start him he'll talk 
cotton and boll-worm until you will know all there is to be 
known on the subject. You see how well informed I am." 

‘‘ Good-night, dear," Nancy said ; “ I suppose we must 
go to bed . . . but you're so interesting . . . how Naughtie 
would love to hear aU you've been telling me . . . I'll try 
my hand at boll-worm with Girgis." 

Nancy," Stella said, you look such a fresh wild 
rose in this dry land, but everything gets mummified 
sooner or later, so put some grease on that baby skin of 
yours, or it will te burnt to a cinder." 

All right," Nancy said ; “ I don't want to lose my one 
asset." 


CHAPTER XXI 


They awoke next morning to find the world hot and sun- 
less ; a vapour bath enveloped their small lake-dwelling, 
and the air was so stifiing that Nancy was almost prostrate. 
It was her first experience of the damp heat of a warm 
country. 

On a sunless day Egypt is as ugly as it really is ... on a 
day of dazzling sunshine, it is as beautiful as it really is 
not. So Nancy said as she stood at the door of their canvas 
room and looked out upon the mist-enveloped lake and 
along the dusty, breathless road which stretched towards 
the desert. 

Suddenly she called to Stella, who was talking to Girgis 
in the room behind her. “ Oh, both of you come quickly ! 
A horse has bolted and is tearing down the road ; a man is 
holding on to the reins and trying to stop it, but he"s being 
dragged along horribly . . . quick, come and look ! 

Stella and Girgis ran to her. As they reached the opening 
Nancy fied down the outside staircase, which took her to 
the ground, the other two at her heels. By this time the 
horse with the lorry had almost reached the iron gate and 
the two white posts which did duty as an entrance to the 
domains of the lake-inn. As there were no hedges or 
dividing lines to mark the enclosure of the property from 
the surrounding desert, the gate was merely an ornament. 
As the beast swung round the posts the man lost his footing 
and was fiung on the ground, and one of the horse^s fore-feet 
passed over his right hand. The girls heard a scream of pain 
from the wounded Arab ; the next instant a labourer ap- 
peared from somewhere and had got hold of the horse by 
the bridle — an easy affair now, as it had slackened its 
pace after the collision with the gate-post. The man who 
had been thrown to the ground was lying in a huddled-up 
heap on the path. 


229 


230 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


Stella and Nancy hurried towards him ; Girgis was 
quietly returning to their hotel when Stella called to him : 
“ Girgis, the man's hurt — didn't you hear him scream ? Send 
some one to help him, or come and help him yourself." 
Girgis stood still and let Stella run on. When she reached 
the man she asked him where he was hurt ; he was groaning 
and moaning as though he were in mortal agony. In answer 
to her inquiry, he stretched out a crushed hand : it was 
streaming with blood and the palm was disgustingly bruised. 
As he rolled over on his side he displayed a nasty cut on 
his temple ... in despair, Stella turned to Girgis for advice : 
he was not there ! He was speaking to the Arab who was 
holding the restive horse . . . she heard him asking “ had 
he brought the chickens he had ordered for lunch, and the 
fruit ? " 

Stella was furious. ‘‘ Girgis ! " she cried, ‘‘ didn't you 
hear me ? Why didn't you come ? The poor creature is 
in agony." 

Girgis sauntered towards her unconcernedly. “ Leave 
him," he said ; “ he's only moaning because you are there. 
Come away." 

Nancy's eyes flashed with anger — she could not trust her- 
self to speak. She was holding the fellah's hard-worked, 
slender hand in her soft fingers. . “ Here, Stella," she said, 
“ make a wad of my handkerchief and put it in the palm 
of his hand, and then tie your own closely round it . . . 
yes, tightly, that's right. . . ." 

Stella did as Nancy told her, and when the wound was 
bound up as well as it could be with two little pieces of 
cambric and lace, Stella urged the man to sit up, to try if 
he could walk. He did so for a moment, but rolled over 
again, moaning pitifully. 

‘‘ Let's go to the inn," Nancy said, “ and send some one 
to him. The cut on his head ought to be washed : the flies 
are getting at it." Nancy had been keeping the pests off 
the wound with her fly-switch. 

Before they left him Stella took four Egyptian shillii:igs 
out of her purse and gave them to the man. “You can't 
do any work for a few days," she said ; “ that will buy you 
some food. I will send some one from the inn to look after 
your wounds : turn over on your face again and keep the 
flies off." 


A WIPE OUT OF EGYPT 


231 


The man did as he was bid. 

Girgis was still talking to the Arab who had caught the 
horse. Stella passed him without a word or a glance, and 
so did Nancy. He hastened after them. ‘‘ The boat is 
ready when you wish to go."" 

Thank you,"" Stella said, very coldly, '' I must first 
see that some one attends to that poor creature"s head and 
hand ; it"s bleeding horribly."" 

‘‘ It is not at all necessary,"" Girgis said casually. 

‘‘ I think it is, and so does Nancy."" 

“ As you wish,"" he said. 

Stella was exasperated at his brutality. If the man had 
been dying she felt that his attitude would have been 
exactly the same ; he thought no more of him than of a fiy. 

Girgis turned round to look at the man : he was already 
walking away, his groaning had ceased ; he was evidently 
not seriously hurt, judging by the manner in which he was 
holding himself. “ Did I not tell you that he was only 
groaning because you were there ? "" Girgis looked pleased. 

“ But he is really hurt,"" Nancy said ; his hand is crushed 
and there is a big cut on his head : it is very wonderful of 
him to walk away like that."" 

Girgis was not listening — ^his interest was centred now on 
an automatic native well which they were passing at the 
moment, and which he had induced the landlord of the inn 
to purchase. He left the girls to go and inspect it. Auto- 
matic sakiyas were a great feature on Girgis"s estates. Stella 
thought they were very ugly, and regretted the innovation : 
they were all very well in a land where labour had to be 
saved, but in Egypt she considered them an unnecessary 
substitute for the old and highly picturesque Nile-wells. 

When Girgis was out of hearing Stella turned to Nancy : 

What do you think of that ?""... she said, referring to 
her cousin"s casual treatment of the injured man. 

‘‘ I think it is the ancient Egyptian in him showing its 
head, he"s too nice otherwise to be utterly devoid of pity ; 
it makes one afraid."" 

“ I"m convinced he thinks that the fellahin can"t feel — 
they"re little more than flies to him."" 

“ But of course they do feel, else why should he be work- 
ing for their progress ? "" Nancy asked the question — she 
did not make the assertion — because her eyes were following 


232 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


the now quickly moving figure of the Arab. Against the 
pale sand of the desert and the low scrub of pink-tipped 
tamarisks and dark-leaved castor-oil plants, his cotton jebba 
looked as blue as the necklace of mummy beads Stella 
was wearing. 

Of course they feel,"" Stella said, but they are philo- 
sophers as well as children, and the worst of it is that the 
man understands Girgis and his brutality far better than us 
and our sympathy ; he probably respects him more."" 

Girgis was so totally unconscious of having disgusted the 
two girls with his callous behaviour, that he attributed their 
silence in the boat to the excessive heat. It was a heat 
Nancy had never dreamt of and had not before experienced 
in Egypt. No sun was visible, and the air felt thick as well 
as warm. . . . Everything, even in nature, looked hideous, 
and she felt hideous, which was far from the truth, for 
even though the English pink had left her cheeks and the 
violet tone of her eyes had decidedly paled, she was still a 
child of delightful fairness. Stella, who also disliked the 
oppressive atmosphere and bemoaned the absence of any 
beauty in the landscape, seemed to gain in good looks as 
the days grew hotter. Her skin had become warmer during 
the hot weather and her whole being seemed to have ex- 
panded like a fiower that needs the sun for its fullest 
development. 

They were in a huge boat manned by three brown 
Arabs who were pushing their way through a narrow 
channel overhung with a dense scrub of low-branchmg 
tamarisks . . . the heat was stifiing, for no air got into the 
channel, and here and there the boat stuck on its muddy 
bottom. On these occasions the men had to wade waist- 
deep in the water to push her off. Before they got into the 
water they had taken off their long galabeahs and dexterously 
converted their red handkerchiefs into loin-cloths — other- 
wise they were naked. The rapidity and neatness with 
which they made red handkerchiefs into modest bathing- 
drawers amused Nancy, and brought the little god of mis- 
chief dancing into her eyes. It reminded her of the very 
first day that she had arrived in Cairo, when she had laughed 
herself almost to tears at the sight of a native arranging 
his European costume for rain. A thunder shower had 
come on suddenly, and a poor man who had on his best black 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


233 


coat and . trousers, which, being made of the shoddiest 
German material, would not stand heavy rain, deter- 
mined to take them off. Without the slightest hesitation 
he sat down by the wayside, it happened to be on the 
wide steps of the Hotel Continental, and took them off — 
his coat, waistcoat, and trousers. After folding them up 
in a neat bundle he tucked them under his arm and 
sauntered happily along one of the fashionable streets 
of the European quarter of the city in his cotton shirt. 
Scarcely any one noticed that his only garments were an 
English shirt and a stiff collar, for a native jebba is so like 
an Englishman's shirt that the difference was scarcely 
perceptible. 

When they at last got out of the channel and into the 
open lake the men climbed back into the boat, but there was 
not much more air to boast off, though Girgis had said it 
would be cooler, and they could scarcely see a hundred yards 
in front of them. They might just as well have been in a 
small bathroom full of steam. The two girls and Mrs. 
Lekejian lapsed into complete silence, and Girgis sat like 
a carved image in the end of the boat. Long before they 
got to the other side of the lake, where the ruins lay of the 
sort of Pompeii which they were to visit, the unanimous 
wish was to return to their comfortable quarters in the 
hotel. There was nothing to be done on such a day as this 
but sit indoors and read, for there at least you would be 
more or less free from flies, and the moist heat was 
worse on the water than in the canvas-walled room of 
the hotel. 

Their return journey was made in perfect silence. Un- 
consciously the little incident of the wounded Arab had 
raised up a stone wall between Nancy and Girgis : she felt 
that if she spoke to him, and he paid her one of his flowery 
compliments in return, that she would be rude to him, 
and as for talking about anything as intellectual as 
“ cotton," while her brain felt like cotton, it was impos- 
sible. Out of the silence she could not start questioning 
him about “ boll-worms " and berseem crops. 

When they reached their inn they were amazed to And 
Nicolas there. To Stella's surprise, he said he had given 
himself a holiday, as he was feeling rather slack. He had 
spent the night in the hotel in the Fayyum, which he 


234 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


declared was almost clean and quite respectable. They 
were all delighted to see him, and Nancy said, “ Now I 
shall have some one to flirt with : Girgis would like to recite 
Persian poems to Stella all day long if I was not here, but 
he has too good taste to speak in a language I can't under- 
stand, and the only English poems he knows are nursery 
rhymes. I believe he thinks Tennyson wrote “ Little Jack 
Horner sat in a corner,' and I heard him muttering ‘ Ba, 
ba, black sheep' most sentimentally a little while ago 
when he thought I wasn't looking ; perhaps he thinks 
the words have some double meaning which he doesn't 
understand." 

Nicolas laughed more because of the girl's infectious 
high spirits and love of mischief than at what she said. 
“ But it takes two to flirt. Supposing I can't or won't ? " 
he said gravely. 

“ I'll teach you if you can't, and if you won't, what's 
the use of your coming ? " 

“ What is flirting, in your opinion ? " 

‘‘ Oh, having a ripping time ! Two people liking each 
other well enough to pretend they like each other a lot 
more, and not really liking each other well enough to have 
a bad pain if they don't ! " 

That's just what I thought," Nicolas said, “ and it's 
a game in which I can't see myself the winner." 

‘‘ Well, what are we going to do if we don't flirt ? " 
Nancy said in a bewildered way. ‘‘ I didn't come to A1 
Fayyum to read books ! " She spoke as if reading books 
was going back to school. 

Girgis, who had come into the room at that moment, 
pulled out a pack of cards from his pocket. “ Bridge ! " 
he said, with the solemnity of an oracle. “Will you like to 
play the game of bridge. Miss Nancy ? " 

Mrs. Lekejian laughed. “ Oh, you moderns ! " she said, 
“ you are prepared for all emergencies." 

Stella consulted with Nancy. “ Shall we play ? It 
seems so rotten to be playing bridge at Lake Moeris, yet 
what are we to do ? " 

“ When there ain't a-going to be no lake, why not try 
to forget it ? " Nicolas said. 

“ That's true," Nancy said, “ and if Nicolas won't flirt," 
she rebuked him with soft eyes, “ perhaps he'll condescend 


A WIPE OUT OF EGYPT 235 

to play — to come down to my level and amuse my small 
mind/' 

They all sat down to a game of bridge while Mrs. Leke- 
jian wrote a letter to her husband. Girgis played an excel- 
lent game — ^he was Stella's partner. Nancy and Nicolas 
both were much stronger than Stella, who had no natural 
instinct for games, but was clever enough to learn anything 
she set her mind to, and Girgis felt frightfully happy at 
finding himself for once in a position to help her and 
at the same time show off his own quickness. 

Occasionally Mrs. Lekejian looked up from her writing 
to speak or smile to one of the quartette, and each time 
she did so Nancy's fair hair struck her as strangely in- 
congruous beside the scarlet tarbush of her nephew and 
the dark glossy hair of her son and daughter. Once, as 
she raised her eyes, she saw Nancy and Nicolas looking 
for a card some one had dropped — their heads were close 
together under the table. She could see Nicolas's hand 
rest on Nancy's for just one moment before the girl raised 
a flushed face to the level of the table. As she did so she 
said : 

‘‘ Stella, he's flirting with me — he's better than his 
word." A burst of laughter came from all four, and 
Nicolas turned scarlet. “ Don't you call holding hands 
flirting, Mrs. Lekejian ? " . . . Nancy had risen from her 
seat and flown to Mrs. Lekejian's side. Flinging herself on 
her knees she said, “ What will you give me if I make 
your grave son really flirt enough to forget how young he 
is, and stop being grown up ? You know you'd love to 
see him do it . . . for men who flirt don't make foolish 
marriages, it's the grave men whom gay women capture." 

Mrs. Lekejian pretended to whip the laughing girl, who 
flew back to Nicolas. ‘'If you are so grave you will die 
an early death," she said, “ or be put in the museum, or 
somewhere worse." 

“ What do you want me to do ? " he said. 

“ Amuse your guest," she said, bowing with mock 
gravity before him. 

“ How shall I amuse her ? " 

“ Oh ! don't ask her how, just begin ; tell her stories 
— naughty ones if you don't know any good ones, I don't 
mind — only I must be amused or interested." She sighed 


236 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


despondently. “ Will this awful mist never lift ? I don't 
want amusing on a sunny day, the world's such fun ; but 
on a day like this what do men think they are made for, 
if it isn't to amuse us women ? " 

Stella laughed : she knew Nancy's fits of teasing too 
well to do anything else. 

Nicolas sat down beside her. “ I'll try," he said, ‘‘ to 
tell you a story." 

Their voices instinctively fell into lower tones. ‘‘ What's 
it about ? " she said. 

“ About a little boy who played with fire." 

“ Has it a moral ? " she said, pouting absurdly. 

“ Yes ... all good stories have morals." 

“ But I don't want a good story." 

“ And I don't know any bad ones." 

“ Make one up," she said ; or 111 ask Girgis to tell me 
one — he's sure to know lots." 

“ Don't you want to hear what became of the bad 
little boy ? " 

‘‘ Oh ! was the boy bad ? " her face mimicked excite- 
ment. 

“ Yes, very bad." 

“ Then that will do," she said. “ I don't mind the 
story being good if the boy was very bad. Why was he 
very bad ? " 

‘‘ Because he had been warned not to play with fire." 

“ Who had warned him ? " 

“ A lady called ‘ Experience.' " 

“ Where did he meet her ? " 

“ When he was idling instead of working." 

“ What did she say to him ? " 

“ That if he played with fire it would burn him, and 
it would hurt." 

“ Go on," Nancy said. “ Did the boy play with it ? " 
She assumed great interest. 

“ At first there wasn't any fire," he said, only two 
tiny sticks ; but the boy knew that if the two sticks came 
too close together there would be fire, but he couldn't 
resist the fun of making just little tiny sparks and flashes 
. . . tiny ones at first, and then bigger and bigger until 
they burst into a big bright flame, and then he couldn't 
stop them burning. They burnt him frightfully and hurt 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


237 


his hands horribly, and still he couldn't help holding them ; 
the flame fascinated him almost more than the pain 
hurt ..." he stopped. 

‘‘ And then ? " Nancy said. 

‘‘ And then . . . well then . . ." he said, “ there was 
nothing more, nothing at all, except the awful pain and 
the memory of all that the lady called ‘ Experience ' had 
told him." 

“ Do you think that little boy will ever play with 
fire again ? " she said. 

“ I think not," he said ; “ he sticks so hard to his work 
now, and never even looks at matches, so that he isn't 
likely to do it again." 

Do you know the little boy ? " she said gravely. 

‘‘ Yes, I am his most intimate friend." 

Should I like him ? " she said. 

“ I think not," he said, ‘‘ he is too grave for you." 

“ You think, like Girgis, that I am only ‘ sweet to the 
nostrils like orange flowers.' " 

He laughed. “ Did Girgis say that ? " 

“ Yes, and much more ; he flirts better than you." 

“ I don't flirt at all." 

“ And you will not introduce me to the little boy ? " 

He shook his head. 

‘‘ You are afraid he would play with the matches again ? " 

“ Yes, I am afraid." He looked into her half-laughing 
eyes. Yes, I am afraid ; I think you are so eager for fun 
that you could not resist tempting the little boy to play 
with the matches, and I think that you are so clever that 
you would drop yours before they burnt your fingers." 

‘‘ You think I am heartless," she said, ‘‘ because I am 
not always serious ? " 

“ I don't think," he said ; ‘‘ what you really are does 
not signify to me so long as . . ." 

‘‘ Then you are rude." 

It is better to be rude than foolish, in my case at 
least." 

I don't think so ; I want to be friends — we are almost 
brother and sister." 

He laughed. Oh ! very nearly." 

Well, I'm going to be Stella's sister-in-law." 

Nicolas frowned. Poor Stella ! " 


238 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 

‘‘ Why poor Stella ? Because I am to be her sister-in- 
law ? 

‘‘ No/' he said quickly, “ that almost reconciles me to 
it." His eyes were so tender that Nancy blushed. 

‘‘ Then why poor Stella ? " 

“ Because I think the whole thing's a mistake." 

Stella and Girgis had left the room, and Mrs. Lekejian 
could not hear them speaking from where she sat when 
their voices were lowered. 

“ You do not like Vernon : I felt that the first night I 
arrived." 

“ I shouldn't dislike him if he was not going to marry 
SteUa." 

You think he is not good enough for her ... I agree 
with you." Their eyes met : Nancy's laughing eyes had 
become dark and grave. ‘‘ But who is good enough for 
Stella ? interesting enough, I mean ? " 

‘‘ Vernon could be if he did not think himself too good." 

‘‘ Oh, you surely don't think he does ! " Nancy gave a 
little cry. “ He never could : he's horribly narrow, I know, 
and has an absurdly narrow outlook upon things he's 
unaccustomed to, but he couldn't think he was too good 
for Stella . . . why, he used to teU us at home that he 
felt ashamed of himself for having asked her to marry 
him." 

He doesn't think that now, not since he came out 
here ? " 

Nicolas," Nancy said very seriously, ‘‘ you exaggerate 
all that sort of thing, you are far too sensitive." 

‘‘ Don't," he said. ‘‘ I have learnt my lesson." 

“ But surely," she said, ‘‘ it's almost as narrow of you 
to think that all English people think alike." 

“ Perhaps it is," he said, “ but anyhow, the fact's un- 
alterable." 

The English out here are hateful," Nancy said. Tears 
had filled her eyes, for Nicolas's voice was lifeless. 

They aren't altogether to be blamed," he said ; some 
of them have tried to be friends with the best of the 
natives, but they get disgusted . . . they give it up." 

Nancy was silent. Then, as though speaking her thoughts 
aloud, she said : ‘‘ The mother of the most intellectual 
king of all Egyptian history . . . the great reformer 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


239 


who lived more than two thousand years before his time, 
was a Syrian, so Stella says . . . you are Syrians/" 

“ A despised race,"" he said, ‘‘ because we have the busi- 
ness instincts of the Jews and their ability to outlast 
persecution."" 

You are bitter."" 

He glanced at her. “ Who wouldn"t be . . . ? "" He 
paused. I am never so bitter as when I"m speaking to 
you."" 

“ Why ? "" she asked — ‘‘ why, when you are speaking 
to me of all people, who sees no barrier between your race 
and her own — why with me, Nicolas ? "" 

“ Because,"" he said slowly, “ because, as Girgis said, 
you are sweet to my nostrils as a wild rose ; that is why."" 

“ Oh, now you flirt ! "" she said nervously, “ but Girgis 
said ‘ orange blossom." "" She looked at him mischievously. 
A deep flush spread over her neck and face when she saw 
the wound her words had inflicted. 

“ I was not flirting,"" he said coldly : ‘‘ you were annoyed 
ten minutes ago because I did not take you seriously, and 
now, because I betrayed a deeper understanding of myself 
to you, you turn everything into banter."" 

“ I am so sorry,"" she said, ‘‘ but I thought you were 
teasing me. I did not mean to hurt."" She laid her soft 
Angers on his wrist : ‘‘ Don"t be cross, Nicolas."" 

He drew his hand away and rose from his seat. ‘‘ Little 
English rose,"" he said gently, ‘‘ don"t prick me with your 
thorns."" He turned and left her without another word. 


CHAPTER XXII 


The next morning the glamour of Egypt had returned. 
Nancy could not believe that she was looking upon the 
same landscape as the day before, for all that had been 
barren ugliness was now turned, by the glory of Amon 
Ra, into a vision of magic beauty. The amazing trans- 
formation seemed almost theatrical. Some hand in the 
heavens was playing with the limelights. The grey sand 
and colourless rocks were thrown into vivid hues ; the clouds 
in the sky were reflected on the silent desert-like flelds of 
summer flowers as azure in tone as the gentians which colour 
the Alps in spring, or the blue Borage (sugameli) which grow 
like a harvest of sown corn round the Greek temples of 
pagan Sicily. They were intoxicated with the mere joy 
of living ; the smallest object was a thing of delight. Mrs. 
Lekejian was happy in seeing her two children almost as 
gay and light-hearted as Nancy, whose bubbling vitality 
was so magnetic that it acted like an intoxicant upon the 
sensitive temperament of her two more seriously minded 
companions. Nancy's mood struck the keynote of the 
day ; she raised the pitch from which the others took their 
tone. To-day it was a very high one : even Nicolas seemed 
to have forgotten that English hedge-roses have thorns, 
and Stella had once more found her voice for song. As a 
child she had always warbled with the liquid note of a 
mating thrush when she had any congenial task on hand. 
But of late her song had ceased. 

A picnic to see the ruins of the famous labyrinth and the 
P3n*amid of Amen-em-hat III., and his daughter Ptah- 
nefert, was to be the order of the day. They lay about 
five miles out, in the desert, from the town of Medinat-al 
Fayynm. . . . Girgis was to ride on his Arab mare while 
the others drove in his comfortable carriage as far as 
the good roads of the irrigated country would allow them. 

240 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


241 


After that they were to pick up donkeys and ride across 
the roadless desert. It was necessary for them first to 
return to Medinat-al Fayyum, as Girgis had to attend to 
some business in the town. 

Girgis was very excited, and talked very often about a 
portion of the drive where, he assured Nancy, the scenery 
was exactly like Scotland, for which country he had a 
romantic admiration. He had seen pictures of Highland 
scenery on postcards. He warned them also, in the gravest 
manner, that the picnic proper, which they would take in 
his rest-house in the desert, would be a very simple affair ; 
he made profuse apologies for the rough fare they would 
have to put up with. The party readily agreed that almost 
any sort of food would be good enough, and all that they 
would expect or require. 

On their way back to the city of A1 Fayyum the scenery 
was exactly the same as it had been two days before, for 
Egypt, with its infinite variety of light and shade and its 
extraordinary mixture of human types, is in its essentials 
always the same : its procession of black- veiled women, 
like funeral mourners, never draws to an end ; its strings 
of obstinate buffaloes, moving slowly through the desert 
sand, never alter their grudging pace ; its groups of nimble- 
footed asses carrying stately riders, whose turbaned heads 
bring to mind the prophet-law-givers of ancient days, 
never slacken their willing trot ; the mud villages, with 
low houses and high pigeon-towers, never change ; the 
saints' tombs, with white domes and dark palm trees, repeat 
themselves with the same unfailing regularity. 

But the secret of Egypt, which no pen can explain, lies 
in the enchanting variety of its sameness. Its repetition 
never wearies, its sameness is never the same, its restrictions 
are never limited. And so the party, as they drove across 
the country from the lake-hotel to the city of A1 Fayyum, 
saw fresh beauty and new wonders in every figure they 
passed, and in every building that lay in desert silence 
under the bewildering sun. 

When Girgis reached his own property he often cantered 
away from their carriage and across the country on his 
exquisite mare ; after a little while he would be back at 
their side again and ready to tell them all that he could 
about the country. Of the ancient things he knew nothing. 

16 


212 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


Girgis was too wrapped up in things modern to take any 
interest in the ancient history of his race, but upon things 
agricultural he was a walking encyclopaedia of information. 

The third time he bounded off Nancy asked Stella if he 
was bored by riding so slowly by their carriage ? 

Stella smiled. “ Oh, no, the time is passing far too 
quickly with him ; but Girgis is a very level-headed young 
man, and, infatuated as he is with our society — ^for he is 
having the time of his life, poor lad — ^he never forgets the 
main object of an Egyptian."" 

Nancy looked at her with questioning eyes. 

“ Cotton,"" Stella said : cotton is to the Egyptian farmer 
what wool is to the Australian. You remember the Piddocks 
at school — how they knew everything there was to be known 
about wool ? "" 

Stella nodded her head towards the richly irrigated 
country as she spoke. ‘^Some fellahin are ploughing with 
camels and a wooden plough over there . . . can you see 
their blue galabeahs and the camels" heads ? Girgis is 
paying them a surprise visit . . . he"s going to see how many 
of the men are sleeping instead of working : the last time 
he left us the sakiya boy was playing dominoes with one 
of the ploughmen, and the ox-wheel was standing still at 
the irrigation well."" 

Nancy was greatly interested. Her practical mind had a 
grave respect for any one who could so admirably combine 
business with pleasure as Girgis did, and who could at the 
same time be so unfailingly ornamental. When he returned 
to their side he looked very stern — even SteUa could not 
hold his attention altogether. 

“ What"s the matter, H.G. ? "" Nancy asked. (R.G. 
stood for “ Rameses the Great,"" which had been her pet 
name for him from the first day she met him.) What"s 
the matter with Egypt ? how many slaves have you 
bastinadoed ? how many hands have you cut off ? "" She 
raised herself on her seat and looked across his mare"s neck. 
‘‘ Have you no heads to show ? . . . how very tame !..."" 

“ I should very much have enjoyed cutting off two 
hands,"" he said, and I think Lord Minton would have 
thanked me if I had sent them to him."" He muttered some- 
thing in Arab which Stella recognized as a popular native 
curse : some one was to have deformed sons and some 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 243 

one else was to be eaten by flies and his wife was to be 
barren. 

“ Do tell us what has happened/" Nancy said, ‘‘ it wiU 
help to entertain us . . . we are your guests."" 

You would not understand,"" he said ; it would not 
interest women."" 

Stella laughed. ‘‘ Remember, Girgis, you are not speaking 
to native women ; you do not laiow what we understand or 
understand what interests us."" 

Give our combined intelligences a chance, R.G. ; 
Englishwomen are awfully inquisitive,"" Nicolas said. 

“ It is very simple to you "" — he addressed Nicolas — “ you 
know how much harm late berseem crops do to the cotton 
crops, and how much I have done to try to prevent the 
farmers from cutting berseem after April ; I won"t allow 
any berseem to be sown close to my cotton on my own land 
at any time."" 

“ I think even Stella knows something about that. Lord 
Minton is taking very strong measures to stop the short- 
sightedness of the natives in that respect,"" said Nicolas. 
His eyes addressed Nancy. 

“ I don"t know anything about it,"" she said simply, 
“ but tell me, if you please."" She laughed as she used 
Girgis"s old expression. 

“ During the early stages of the cotton-growing, up to 
the end of June, the boll-worm can And nothing to live 
upon in the cotton flelds, and so it goes to the berseem crops 
and puts in time until the cotton is to its taste. . . . The 
natives foolishly plant their berseem quite close up to the 
cotton crop, so as not to waste any land. If there was 
no berseem for their worms to feed upon they would die of 
starvation and want of moisture."" 

“ Then why do the natives plant it so close ? isn't 
cotton far more valuable than berseem ? "" 

‘‘ Yes, much, but berseem grows quicker and so gives a 
ready return for their money. Two or three berseem crops 
can be grown in one season, but only one cotton crop."" 

Girgis burst in : '' 1 pay nearly all the working expenses 
of my farm off berseem and other light crops ; my cotton is 
clear profit."" 

“ Then why doesn"t berseem hurt your cotton ? "" 

‘‘ Because I cut my last crop of berseem before it can hurt 


244 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


the cotton — the boll-worm does not do its work so early ; 
and I never keep a berseem crop standing for seed anywhere 
near my cotton crops, or water it after a certain date/" 

“ I see,"" Nancy said ; ‘‘ and yet I don"t see why the 
natives should be such fools . . . they have been growing 
cotton ever since the Nile ran through Egypt, practically ; 
they must know how they will lose in the end/" 

“ The poor things try to squeeze in another crop,"" Nicolas 
said, “ because of their awful greed for ready money. You 
must remember that the greater part of the small growers 
have gambled away their cotton crops almost as soon as 
the green shoots have shown above the ground : the money 
off the berseem is all they can put in their own pockets."" 

‘‘Is the Berseem Act one of Lord Minton"s reforms ? "" 
Stella said. “ He"s wonderful, isn"t he ? He strikes at the 
root of evils. . . . Instead of introducing new cottons which 
are not so valuable as the old ones, how much wiser to make 
it illegal to cut berseem and sow it after a certain date ! "" 

“ He has not got so far as that yet,"" Nicolas said, “ it 
is not illegal . . . the fellahin wouldn"t stand that all at once."" 

Girgis gave his mirthless laugh. “ He is much wiser,"" 
he said ; “ he has ordered the Mudirs to persuade the fellahin 
not to do it."" 

The real interpretation of the word persuade was not 
hard to guess by the tone of Girgis "s voice. 

“ How do you persuade your men ? "" Nancy asked. 
“ Are you a Mudir ? "" 

“ No, I am not a Mudir — I am a Christian."" 

They all laughed at his veiled sarcasm except Nancy, who 
did not understand it. 

Mrs. Lekejian shook her head : “ Oh, Girgis, Girgis ! "" 
she said in a kindly tone, “ is that the only reason why 
you are not a Mudir ? "" 

“ That is why I can never be one,"" he said, “ while 
Egypt is governed as she is at present, but who knows ?..."" 
his eyes gleamed in his sun-broAvned face like moving 
onyx beads . . . “ but I am a land-owner. Miss Nancy, and 
when I let a small piece of land to a tenant farmer last 
year,|it was laid down in the agreement that no berseem 
was to be sown (within a certain distance from the cotton), 
after a certain date, and that no crop of berseem was to 
stand for seed after a certain date."" 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


245 


“ Well ? Nancy said. 

“ Well/" Girgis said, ‘‘ that contract has been broken."" 
He looked at his riding- whip significantly ... ‘‘ If I had done 
what I should have liked to have done I should have sent 
his two hands to Lord Minton, as you so wisely suggested."" 

Nancy laughed. ‘‘ As a gentle reminder that you had 
not forgotten the indignity offered to your ancestors when 
one of the Pharaohs — I forget which, though — Stella told me 
about it only yesterday — brought back from Syria seven 
chiefs and hanged them head -downwards from the bows of 
his boat on his triumphal return to Thebes. But I quite 
agree with you that they deserve it."" 

“ Exactly . . . and the same king sent one of their heads 
to Napata as a hint to the revolutionary Nubians that that 
was how he treated people who disobeyed his orders . . . 
a few hands hung from the bows of our boat to-day would 
prevent berseem-sowing and have more effect than all the 
fines and imprisonments ... it takes an Egyptian to punish 
Egyptians and to rule them : the English will learn that 
lesson one day."" 

‘‘ So you think, my dear boy,"" Mrs. Lekejian said ; ‘‘ but 
I think it"s a good thing that there is little chance of you 
ever becoming a Mudir ; the ancient Pharaohs wouldn"t 
have been in it with you. . . . The wretched fellahin are 
only children : you speak as though they had our intelli- 
gence, as though they understood."" 

‘‘ They must be made to understand, and until they can 
understand through their intelligence they must be made 
to understand through fear."" 

“If they could have been taught by the cutting off of 
hands they would surely have learnt long ago,"" Stella 
said. 

“ If only the Prophet had laid it down in the Koran,"" 
Nancy said . . . “ it seems to me that the Koran is the 
only thing they ever will obey ; a new and enlarged edition 
should be brought out."" 

“ You think they obey it,"" Stella said, “ but ! "" she 
shrugged her shoulders . . . “ well, the Prophet forbade the 
drinking of strong wines, but he did not mention whisky 
and liqueurs, and even music was forbidden, yet the most 
devout fellah sings whenever he gets the chance, and 
almost every wealthy Mohammedan has a music gallery 


246 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


in his house . . . it's the same thing with dancing — they 
adore it, and it was most strictly forbidden." 

“ On the old caravan roads," Nicolas said, “ you often 
meet strolling singers who entertain the travellers round 
the camp fires at night ! It's the natural amusement of 
the people." 

Nancy's eyes sparkled. “ How I should love to get into 
the real desert life ! I want dancers, and fortune-tellers, 
and snake-charmers, and jugglers, and story-tellers, and 
buffoons in their proper environment. Can't we go ? " 

Mrs. Lekejian whispered to her : “ They generally become 
so improper, my dear, that if you understand what they 
are saying no lady can stand it ; that is why they were 
put down in the streets of Cairo — I well remember all that 
sort of thing. But the people love lewd jests and low fun 
so much that they won't pay the performers any money 
until they pass all bounds of decency." 

Girgis had left them again, but this time he was not far 
off ; they saw him riding beside a steam plough which was 
doing its work in its rapid modern way. When he returned 
he told Nicolas the time it took to plough an acre of land 
with the new machine compared to doing it with the camel 
and wooden plough of classic days. Nancy noticed that 
all his ploughing was not done in this rapid fashion. 

“ You have to consider the fellahin," he said. ‘‘ What 
would they do ? " 

Nancy's eyes softened : for once Girgis had shown that 
he was human. I forgot that," she said. “ What would 
they do ? And yet you can't stop the hand of time : it is 
beginning to move even in Egypt. Is it right to retard 
progress for the sake of employing human beings who are 
little better than animals ? " 

“ Socialists would solve that problem in their own way," 
Nicolas said, ‘‘ but fortunately Girgis is still a considerate 
master rather than a theoretical reformer." 

They had suddenly left the agricultural land of the 
oasis, with its wide roads and rich green crops, and were 
descending into a rocky valley, hedged on either side by 
a beautiful undergrowth of natural wild plants. This was 
Girgis's Scotland. In Egypt, greenness and luxurious 
vegetation always means abundant irrigation — the over- 
flowing of the Nile (at Medinat-al Fayyum the Bahr Yusuf^ 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


247 


a branch of the Nile, distributes its waters in canals and 
channels over the wealthy oasis). Such vegetation was a 
delight and surprise to Mrs. Lekejian and Nicolas. Girgis 
had reason to be proud of it. Nancy, of course, took the 
wild greenness for granted ; this sort of scenery in her 
eyes was natural — the desert, mth its waves of sand and 
turbulent rocks of strange colours, was uncanny and 
mysterious. As yet she scarcely understood Girgis's and 
Nicolas's discussion about the new roads in the Delta 
which the Government are introducing, for it had never 
entered her head that there are no roads, as we under- 
stand the word road, in Egypt, except in the Delta and 
in the outskirts of the settled towns. The caravan roads 
are tracks in the sand, which the natives can follow with 
the same sense and understanding as mariners follow 
the tracks in the sea which are their roads of communi- 
cation with other lands. The road from the city of 
Medinat-al Fayyum to Lake Moeris was one of the wide 
roads for agricultural transport which are common in the 
Fayyum, and so, when they left their carriage at the point 
where Girgis told them they were to meet their donkeys, a 
new experience awaited Nancy : they were to ride across 
the roadless desert to the pyramids of Hawara. 

Their donkeys were splendid animals, and the best and 
quietest of them was given to Nancy. It stood as high as 
a small pony, and was as white and smooth of skin as 
her own suMe glove. On its breast there were necklaces 
of blue beads hanging, with silver charms and amulets 
of every description, cowrie shells, and passages from the 
Koran roUed up in little red leather cases, and lumps of 
sacred soil from Mecca. The ass looked like a beast got 
up for an Eastern fancy bazaar. 

Girgis, with Stella and her mother, led the way : how they 
did it Nancy could not imagine, for in her eyes the desert 
held as few landmarks as the open sea ; but they never 
seemed to have the slightest doubt about their direction, 
and the donkeys ambled on as though they were going 
to market with native women on their backs. But Nancy 
felt very different from the placid native women who grow 
fat through indolence of mind and Oriental compliance with 
the will of Allah, for the air was electric and her senses 
were intoxicated with the spell of Egypt. Everything 


248 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


she had ever heard or read about the desert fled from 
her mind at the actual realization of its wonder, and she 
was more nearly able to comprehend the infinity of God 
than she had been before. In the desert God is in the 
light and in the silence, He is the Lord of the Sweet Wind ; 
so much so that Nancy, with her practical mind and irre- 
pressible modernity, felt the Mystery of the Sublime. 
That nearness of God which alone the desert can bestow 
is its secret. In the desert man's place in the world is lost. 

Nicolas, whose sensibilities were too keen to allow him 
to remain outside the mental atmosphere of his company, 
did not disturb the reverie into which his usually talkative 
and amusing companion had fallen. He was riding a few 
steps behind her, partly for the pleasure of watching the 
natural grace of her seat in the saddle, and partly because 
the girl's donkey persisted in leading the way. She looked 
such a childish figure under her long veil of dark blue, 
which she wore right down to her knees, that Nicolas longed 
to hold her in his arms as one holds a child that one loves. 
Nancy's violet eyes could not bear the fierce glare of the 
pitiless sun as well as Stella's dark ones, which, like her 
own, had long been accustomed to the half-light of England. 
Stella wore a green gauze veil only half as thick as Nancy's. 
Nicolas and Girgis did not even wear blue glasses. To 
Nancy it seemed incredible that any mortal eyes could 
bear the terrific glare. Besides, the thick veil saved her 
fair skin from the hot air, which burnt like the breath of 
an oven. Wearing it as long as she did, right down to 
her knees, prevented flies getting under it, and as it flapped 
about it created a little draught. 

After they had been riding for some time in the inti- 
mate silence, which tells more than any speaking, little 
towns appeared on the far horizon of the desert — ^little 
towns with white minarets and green palm trees ; and 
evidently there was water, for Nancy could see the white 
wings of sailing boats, like birds on the edge of the desert, 

‘‘ I had no idea," she said suddenly to Nicolas, that 
there were so many towns in the real desert ; I thought 
only Bedouins and various sorts of tent -dwellers lived on 
its barren waste away from the Nile . . . but there must 
be water there . . .'^ she was nodding towards the far- 
distant town. . . . What are we coming to ? " 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


249 


Nicolas smiled. “ I'm afraid it would take you a very 
long time to come to that city," he said ; ‘‘ about as long 
as it took the boy to reach the end of the rainbow, where 
he went to find the buried treasure. ... I doubt if any 
of the inhabitants of the Medinat-al Fayyum have ever 
been any nearer to it than we are now." 

‘‘ AVhy ? " Nancy said. “Is there something sacred 
about it ? Is it a forbidden city ? The Moslems have many 
forbidden cities, haven't they ? " 

“ It's a city forbidden to all mortals, not only Moslems." 

“ Do explain ! " Nancy said impatiently. “ What do any 
but mortal things want with mosques and houses and 
boats . . . it's growing clearer and clearer — ^how lovely 
it is ! " 

“ All I know is that no mortal has ever trodden its 
streets, no prayer has ever been offered up by human 
lips from those white mosques, no call to prayer cried 
from those minarets." 

Nancy made her donkey halt until Nicolas was by her 
side ; her questioning eyes met his grave ones, which were 
now gay with laughter. “ Now do you understand. Miss 
Hedge-rose, do you realize that at last you have seen a 
‘ mirage ' . . . a real desert mirage — that that city over 
there doesn't exist at all." 

Nancy's expression changed to one of absolute wonder 
and incredulity. “ Do you really mean it ? Am I to 
believe that, though we both see them, there are no 
real houses over there, no water with boats on it, no palm 
trees ? " 

Nicolas shook his head. “ No, none at all." 

“ Then I suppose you will be saying that there is no 
me . . . that I don't exist, that I'm only material mind, 
like the Christian scientists." 

“ No, I won't," he said, “ though I often try to wish 
there wasn't any you ... do you know why ? " He put 
his hand on the pommel of her saddle as he spoke. “ Of 
course you know," he said a little bitterly, “ though, like 
all women, you will pretend that you don't." 

“ Because I ‘ rag ' and waste your time ? " 

Her eyes were not turned to his, and through her dark 
veil he could not see that the tint of her cheeks had 
turned to crimson. 


250 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


Nicolas lifted his hand from her saddle. ‘‘ Yes, sweet 
Nancy, you are dangerously real, as real and living to me 
every minute of the day as I am myself — even when we 
are miles apart. You are far more real than that great 
tomb of Amen-em-hat, which was placed there two thou- 
sand years before Christ introduced His strange theories 
into the East and gave the world a new religion to fight 
over, a Saviour to die for, and new ideals to live for."" 
He paused . . . “Behind it lie the ruins of the famous 
Labyrinth."" 

Nicolas had purposely spoken of these things to detract 
from the embarrassment his first words might have 
caused ... he was angry with himself for having allowed 
his feelings to unbridle his tongue — but truly the tongue 
is an unruly member : when we think we have it most 
under control it pulls the bridle from our hands and is off 
at a wild canter. 

“ What is the Labyrinth ? "" Nancy said. “ Stella talked 
about it last night as though I ought to understand all 
about it. Stella knows a horrible lot about ancient Egypt, 
doesn"t she ? "" 

Nicolas laughed. “ Yes, a horrible lot."" 

“ I can"t imagine how she remembers the hatefully long 
names ; but I suppose, after all, you can remember any- 
thing if you are interested enough in the subject. ... I 
like Girgis"s Egypt far best, the Egypt of the boll-worm 
and the f ellahin and the Nationalists, it interests me fright- 
fully; but I ought to know about the Labyrinth."" 

“ The Labyrinth is the name given to the huge city 
which grew up round the pyramid of Hawara, while the 
king (Amen-em-hat III.) was building it for his own tomb 
when he was dead . . . these pryamids took so long to 
build and decorate that cities used to grow up around 
them during their construction. They died away when 
the king was buried, and another city grew up round 
the next pyramid that the new king was having raised 
for himself: in Egypt it was always a case of ‘The King 
is dead, long live the King ! " "" 

“ I see,"" Nancy said, but she spoke absently, for her 
eyes were once more on the mirage. “ I never imagined 
mirages were things that every one could see at the same 
time,"" she said dreamily. “ I thought they were optical 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


251 


delusions which highly sensitive and imaginative people 
saw . . . but you see that town, and I see it, and I sup- 
pose all the others see it ? "" 

Nicolas laughed at her consternation over the unreal. 
“ And it doesn't exist after all ! ... it really doesn't ; 
it's like our happiness," he said reflectively. 

“ Oh, don't say that ! How horrid of you, when I'm so 
absolutely happy to-day ! . . . happiness is real when you 
feel like this — aren't you happy this morning ? " 

Yes, Just now, too happy," he said, and his eyes told 
her the reason why . . . ‘‘ but will it last, like the king's 
tomb, or will it fade away when the sun goes down like 
your mirage city ? " Something in his voice conveyed 
more than his words. 

“ If happiness lasted for ever I suppose we should get 
awfully sick of it and long for a good fit of the blues." 

“ Perhaps you're right : unhappiness is like rain, it 
softens humanity . . . people who have never known it 
can't sympathize with others who have, and some people 
who have never known any real happiness can't sympathize 
with a girl like you who can be happy through the mere 
joy of living — isn't that so ? " 

Yes, sometimes I think so ; but I really believe that 
for ordinary mortals there is more danger in too much 
happiness than in too much suffering, although it sounds 
as though, whatever gods there be, the gods who have 
arranged all things according to their own pleasures were 
very cruel ; it's their way of paying out mankind for 
daring to have too good a time. Truly Nemesis is a 
jealous god, and her name is woman ! If mortals dare 
to have a really glorious time she sees that they pay for 
it by suffering, and if they are to escape suffering she sees 
that they are bereft of the most human gift of all, the power 
of sympathy." 

‘‘ It seems to me that even you must have suffered ! 
Yet who would have imagined it ? But then you are 
amazingly sensible too, and you don't look it. How do 
you manage it ? " He laughed affectionately. 

‘‘ I don't know what I look, but I feel a walking monument 
of common, practical, everyday sense. I often wish I 
didn't . . . I'm not a bit temperamental. ... I think 
that’s the word used nowadays, isn't it, to express people 


252 


A WIPE OUT OF EGYPT 


like Stella ? I'm so horribly, sanely ordinary beside her ; 
when I'm old and fat I shall be dreadful." 

‘‘ In what way, and why should you ever be fat ? " 
Nicolas made no flattering rejoinder. 

“ Because the women of our family grow fat, the men 
stay thin . . . we're like the hedge-roses truly enough : 
when the bloom goes off we turn into round, red, prosaic 
food for the birds. ... I shall be absolutely commonplace 
both in mind and appearance, not one scrap different from 
all the other little round, red-faced women who knock 
the bottom out of the most charming illusions by their 
bump of common sense." 

“ It was I who knocked the bottom out of your desert 
city, wasn't it ? Will you forgive me ? " 

Nancy laughed as her beast bore her swiftly away from 
her companion's side ; it was a gentle beast, with nice 
manners, but it did not like being passed, and Nicolas's 
donkey had been trying to gain the lead. ‘‘ You've yet 
got to prove that your words are true," she called out ; 
‘‘ anyhow, Fm not going to let the mirage of my happiness 
fade away at sunset." 

After a good long scamper across the open desert her 
donkey suddenly halted with extraordinary abruptness 
in front of a native hut whose small windows were jealously 
guarded with wooden blinds to keep out the sun. The 
door also was shut, to exclude the hot air ; but the 
moment the animal stopped the door was opened and a 
stately Arab salaamed in front of Nancy with grave respect. 
Nancy had not been in the least aware of the tremendous 
temperature they had been riding in — for the dry heat of 
the desert is curiously deceptive — until she entered the 
cool hut, whose gracious shade and air of spotless clean- 
liness made it seem an earthly paradise. The Arab servant, 
whose beautifully rolled turban and long grey silk robe 
endowed him with the air and dignity of an Old Testament 
prophet, helped her to dismount ; he next relieved her of 
her veil and riding-gloves. 

With a sigh of content she looked round her and in- 
spected the building : the one large room, with its mud 
floor and mud walls, seemed as cool as an ice-house ; pleasant 
streaks of desert light strayed into it through the wide 
ribs of the wooden shutters, but the chief delight was the 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


253 


total absence of flies. Since sunrise the windows had been 
carefully closed, and so had the door. During the night 
the cool air had been allowed to flow in, and the flies 
which had got in at night had been suffocated in the 
Keating's powder which had been laid for them all round 
the window-panes. Their corpses had been buried and 
put out of sight long before the appearance of the master 
and his guests. 

On a tressel table Nancy saw preparations being made 
for an appetizing lunch ... it had just been unpacked 
from a very up-to-date luncheon-basket whose little brass 
label was marked “ Harrods." When she saw the label 
she could not help smiling : it took her mind back so 
abruptly to scenes far different from her present sur- 
roundings. Instantly she saw all the conventional London 
women doing their conventional shopping, she saw this 
very basket lying in its particular department in Harrods' 
stores. In a moment the whole of her English life flooded 
her being ; a horrible dread of it seized her senses. Would 
she have to return to it ? would she have to take up again 
all the things that now she felt did not matter ? would 
she have to fill her life afresh with shopping, and games, 
and society gatherings ? The visualizing of it all took 
less time than the dreaming of a dream which seems to 
the sleeper to have harrowed his life for days and hours, 
but in reality has only lasted a few seconds. Stella was 
in the hut beside her before the smile the label had called 
up had faded from her lips. 

“ Look," she said, at the modernity of R.G. Your 
Pharaonic cousin has had his lunch-basket sent out from 
Harrods’. His riding-breeches came from Thomas's, his 
boots from Hook and Knowles, and here's a thermos flask 
from . . ." 

The Arab handed it to her politely and mthout a vestige 
of a smile said : “ From Amon-Ra, sitt,'' 

Stella laughed at the man's ready answer. 

‘‘ Wliat does he mean ? " Nancy said. 

“ He means that they are heat-giving, like the great sun- 
god Amon-Ra . . . you're forgetting all your lessons in 
Egyptology, Nancy." 

‘‘ Oh, stop about the ancient gods ! Now that I am not 
going up the Nile, and shan't see their temples, I can't 


254 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


even fake up a human interest in them ; they all seem to 
me so impossible. ... I prefer the gods of the present 
day, there's plenty of them and other things." 

Nicolas held up a jar of de foie gras, “ Things 
like this, for instance," he said, “ and this . . . " he threw 
a dessert chocolate across the table for her to catch, “ and 
this," he laid a glass of preserved peaches on the table ; 
‘‘ and what of this ? " — a roast chicken, exquisitely cool in 
its wrappings of green leaves, was exhibited. 

‘‘ I didn't know I was so hungry or so greedy — it's all 
the same thing with over-fed civilizations, isn't it ? — until 
I saw these delicacies, did you ? Isn't it all ripping ? " 
She turned to smile upon Girgis, for it was he, of course, 
who had provided the luxurious feast set before them ; 
but he was busy outside the hut seeing that the saddles 
were removed from the donkeys before the beasts took 
their midday siesta. The saddles had to be taken out of 
the sun, or they would be too hot to sit upon later on. 
So Nancy's eyes were turned to Nicolas agam : “ When I 
saw this basket I had a terrible wave of depression ; it's 
passing off now." 

“ Why depression ? Were you so far removed from 
material things that the sight of food disgusted you ? " 

‘‘ Oh, no, all this belongs to Mortal-mind, and I'm 
awfully mortal ! . . . I'm afraid I don't ever want to be 
Divine-mind if pdte de fois gras is to be excluded ; but that 
basket and the one word ‘ Harrods' ” (she pointed to the 
label) “ called up all sorts of boring visions in my mind ; 
it reminded me that there is a London of shops and blouses 
and gowns and things. After the desert it's awful : the 
whole thing thundered in my ears and forced on me the 
truth of the fact that this is your life, not mine, that I have 
to return to all the dullness of things that don't matter, 
of things that are artificial and untrue . . ." she sighed 
. . . I'd love to live in the desert with a praying-mat 
and a gullah for ever." 

“ I wonder if you would really be contented to live in 
Egypt, to make it your home," Stella said. Nicolas 
appeared not to be listening, but Nancy felt his searching 
eyes awaiting her answer. 

‘‘ If I could live in the desert for half the year I should 
be more than content, and the other half in Cairo as you 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


255 


live, not as the English live — I'd sooner be in London buying 
blouses at Harrods' and talking rot at tea-parties. . . 
She paused. ... ‘‘ At present I can't imagine wanting to 
live anywhere for always — I want to see the whole world ; 
now that I've begun at the beginning of things, I want to 
go on. I'd love to see the very latest civilizations, but I 
should like to live for four years in Egypt first — that's 
to say, if I could live with your people." 

She slipped her hand into Mrs. Lekejian's. “ Will you 
adopt me when Stella's gone ? — ^let me be your little 
black sheep ? " 

Mrs. Lekejian patted the girl's absurdly slender hand 
affectionately. “ What a temptress she is ! " 

‘‘ Wouldn't it be fun ! " Nancy said — her mind had flown 
off to other things — ‘‘ if there could be a ship-load of 
Western babies wrecked on a desert island ... if they 
could grow up there and evolve their own civilization. 
What would they invent, I wonder ? Would their centuries 
of inherited civilization teU upon their various arts and 
crafts ? would their minds run to electricity ? would their 
utensils be beautiful and pure in shape, like the things of 
the primitive peoples, or would they be more like ours of 
to-day ? " 

There was a general laugh at the idea, and Mrs. Lekejian 
said : ‘‘ What are we to do when you are gone, Nancy ? 
You keep us all alive : you seem to be a part of our life 
already.” 

“ You darling for saying that, when you know I'm a 
perfect plague . . . Nicolas will get some work done again, 
and Mr. Lekejian will grow quite old for want of teasing. 
But I suppose you will have to leave Cairo soon." She 
spoke regretfully. 

Mrs. Lekejian looked towards Stella : “So much depends 
upon her future plans : if Vernon is sent home I suppose 
she will want to go too " — in speaking of home Mrs. Leke- 
jian always referred to England. “We had thought of going 
this summer to some watering-place near Alexandria, and 
Stella had some idea of visiting Syria with Nicolas, of 
staying on the slopes of Mount Lebanon for the hot summer 
months ; but Vernon may be sent home on sick-leave if 
his recovery is not satisfactory, then I don't suppose she'd 
want to go to Syria." 


256 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


Nancy said, “ I suppose not,'^ though, to her mind, living 
on the slopes of Mount Lebanon, with Nicolas for a daily 
companion, sounded so much more interesting than going 
back to England with Vernon, that her words dropped out 
in slow wonder. Something kept her from asking why 
Vernon did not marry Stella whenever he was better and 
go with her to Syria if he could get sick-leave. 

This discussion had taken place during their luncheon, 
which was a most complete and excellent affair, commencing 
with hors d’oeuvres and ending up with Turkish coffee 
made in the true native manner on a fire kindled on 
the desert floor. Nancy watched with delight the two 
white-turbaned heads bending low over the little brass 
coffee-pot while the sugar and water and coffee boiled 
all together in it. At the critical moment one or two drops 
of cold water were thrown in to clear it. It was all so 
gravely and seriously done that it might have been a 
religious rite. It was served on a brass tray, in miniature 
glass tumblers decorated with beads of blue enamel. 

Girgis was inwardly delighted that his picnic was 
proving such a success and surprise to his guests, who cer- 
tainly did ample justice to the good things he had ordered. 
The whole affair was such a striking contrast to the un- 
comfortable tea provided by his aunt two days before, 
that Stella and Nancy were amazed that he should have 
knovm how to do all these things so well and yet remain 
contented with his aunt's attempts at Western habits. 
But what bored Girgis far more than his aunt's feeble 
attempts at hospitality in the Western mode was the 
vulgar luxury of his mother's Levantine friends in 
Cairo, While they were enjoying their cigarettes and 
coffee and the indulgence of an after-lunch lounge to rest 
their backs, Nancy saw the two Arabs who had been 
serving their coffee saying their prayers out in the open 
desert . . . one of them Avas washing his feet and rinsing 
his ears and nose (preparatory to his devotions) — ^water 
from an earthen gullah served as his jet d'eau. The other 
Arab Avas standing upright, his rapt eyes gazing towards 
the East, his slim hands folded devoutly across his chest. 
On the sand at his feet was his circular praying-mat, made 
of plaited straw. 

In the great stretch of desert, which seemed to Nancy’s 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


257 


untutored eye to constitute the whole world as she looked 
out upon it from the shade of the cool hut, these figures 
were the only living things. Beyond them, in the fierce 
sunlight, lay the imperishable tomb of the Pharaoh whose 
imperishable wovk laid the foundations of the wealth of 
the oasis city of this day. It rose up brown and stern 
in its primitive grandeur against the blue Egyptian sky. 
Truly the gods of the ancients did not fail their people in 
their days of great endeavour. 

Nancy nodded to Stella, whose eyes also were looking 
at the two Arabs ; in her heart she was envying them in 
their complete surrender to their one god. 

Nancy asked Girgis why he employed Mohammedans 
when he was such a jealous Copt. 

‘‘ I make no difference,"' he said. “ I employ Copt or 
Moslem according to what I think the man is worth . . . 
that is how it should be ; but I do not give all my best- 
paid posts to Moslems." 

“ I think that is perfectly fair," the girl said eagerly ; 
“ but I imagined you would only employ Copts, as Mr. 
Lekejian does." 

“ My party does not consider a man's religion. If a man 
is better for the religion he believes in, what does it matter 
what religion it is ? We do not let religion govern our 
politics, we are striving for the betterment of Egypt . . . 
that is the great thing. . . . But I am not very pleased 
when I see your Government giving all the pensionable 
posts, all the posts which uphold the dignity of the people, 
to the Moslems ; I wish to see the Christians given the same 
chance as Moslems — that is all I ask ; and this can never 
be done until the ‘ Independent Egyptian Party ' is in 
power." 

“ What is the Independent Party composed of ? " Nancy 
asked. 

“It is representative of the Coptic community and 
many of the representative and wealthy Moslems. Its aim 
is Representative Government in Egypt, irrespective of 
race and religion . . . but I go farther than my party . . . 
they are too slow." 

Girgis said the last words with an unlovely smile curling 
his scarlet lips and showing his gleaming teeth. Mrs. 
Lekejian, who knew her nephew's fanatical views upon 

17 


268 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


political subjects, tried to divert the conversation — the 
picnic was not to be spoilt by political discussions. On all 
other topics she knew that Girgis was well balanced and 
particularly level-headed. She hoped that as years went 
by he would grow to see the folly of his views upon the 
Egyptian question of Representative Government. 

She was glad when the two Arabs, who had finished their 
prayers, entered the hut carrying the brass tisht and ibreek 
for washing the guests' hands after meals. 

The head servant stopped at the side of Nancy and 
held the basin in front of her — a clean towel was laid across 
its wide brim. When she put out her hands a second 
servant trickled some cold water, scented with attar-of- 
roses, over her fingers from the brass ibreek, whose slender 
spout was as gracefully curved as the neck of a flamingo. 
The water ran through an exquisitely pierced raised recep- 
tacle which acted as a soap-dish, at the same time hiding 
from view the used water. In this way the next guest 
did not see the water his neighbour had washed in. 

‘‘ If this isn't the very essence of refinement and Oriental 
indulgence ! " Nancy said, ‘‘ and foolish people at home think 
you rough it in the desert ! I'd like them to see us now. I 
do wish we could live in the desert for a bit — couldn't we ? " 
It's almost too hot now," Mrs. Lekejian said. ‘‘ I was 
afraid to let you ride under that awful sun to-day." 

‘‘ I loved it," Nancy said. “ I didn't feel the least 
hot — did you, Stella ? — ^not half as hot as you do in a 
London 'bus." 

In spite of her protest the two girls almost shrank back 
from the blast of hot air which fanned their faces as they 
emerged from the hut — it was like the air of a furnace ; 
and the sun was so blinding that Nancy had to drop her 
veil instantly. Yet Girgis did not seem to be aware of the 
difference , his thickly lashed eyes never flinched, and he 
wore nothing to protect the back of his head. 

Mrs. Lekejian made up her mind to wait in the rest-house 
until the party picked her up on their return journey from 
the Labyrinth and the tomb of Amen-em-hat, and so Girgis 
had the bliss of Stella's undivided attention. He helped 
her to climb the pyramid, while Nicolas assisted Nancy. It 
was very unlike the gigantic efforts in climbing which have 
to be made at the pyramids of Gizeh, for here the whole 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


259 


thing was built of small bricks made of sun-baked mud, 
which crumbled to pieces under their leather-soled boots, 
after successfully defying the elements for three or four 
thousand years. Girgis had been finding it harder and 
harder to content himself with smiles and tender looks 
from his cousin ; he had broken out once or twice into 
rhapsodies of love, but as they were generally quotations 
from Persian or Arabic poems, they were not personal 
enough to deserve censoring. 

If Stella had in the least understood how magnificently 
he was controlling the tumult of passion which was surging 
through his veins and threatening to demolish his will- 
power, she would have admired the strength of the man 
and appreciated far more fully his respect for her wishes. 
At last words escaped him which he had meant not to say, 
words he had been thinking all day long, for he realized 
that Stella was gayest and happiest now, when Vernon 
Thorpe was forgotten, when her mind was occupied 
with other things. Her girlish lightheartedness during 
her visit to the Fayyum was a surprise to him . . . she 
was almost as big a romp as Nancy, but in her eyes slept 
that passion which kindles in men's hearts the exquisite 
fiame ! 

They were seated on the ground. Stella was letting 
the hot desert sand trickle through her fingers ! Girgis sud- 
denly grasped her wrist with his firm hand, his masterful 
eyes drew hers to his. “ Tell me, because I adore and 
worship you, because you have brought into my heart a 
higher love than I ever understood before, a love which 
could not offend your pure mind if you could read it 
all — why do you not desire to marry your English lover any 
more ... is it because you have learnt to love your 
own people too much ? Have you ceased to respect the 
English ? " 

Stella drew her hand from his fierce grasp. ‘‘ Girgis, 
why do you persist in saying these things? Of course I wish 
to marry Vernon, I love him more than ever." 

‘‘ That is what you wish was true, but is not true." 

Stella felt her heart beating more rapidly. You have 
no right to say such things. What do you know about 
my feelings ? " Her pride had risen to her assistance. 

“ I know,'* he said, “ because I can read your mind 


260 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


. . . but not all your mind, for I do not yet imderstand 
why your passion for him has died ... if you loved me 
that would explain . . . but you do not . . . not yet . . 

“ I never shall, Girgis . . . not in the way you wish 
me to, not in the way a woman should love the man she 
marries.'" 

‘‘ How is that way, if you please ? " 

“ With her whole heart ; she should feel that for her 
there is only one man whom she could marry, and that 
man is the man she loves." 

There was silence for a little time and then he said, “ For- 
give me, but that is not how you love Mr. Thorpe, and yet 
you are willing to marry him . . . you are marrying him 
now because you are grateful to him for having saved your 
father's life . . . you are marrying him because he is a 
hero ? " 

Stella smiled rather sadly, but did not answer. 

Girgis waited for a moment or two. 

‘‘ Would you marry me if I were a hero ? " — he paused as 
though thinking — ‘‘if I did something for Egypt . . . very 
great . . . would you marry me ? " 

“ I am going to marry Vernon." 

“ Perhaps not ? " 

“ But I tell you I am, Girgis, so there is no use in your 
talking so childishly." She rose to her feet impatiently. 

Girgis saw that she was annoyed, and begged her to 
forgive him. “ You are my guest to-day," he said, “ and 
I did not mean to anger you ; I have tried very hard not 
to speak of my love, but ‘ out of the fullness of the heart 
the mouth speaketh.' Will you forgive me ? I only live 
for the sweetness of your smiles." 

“ Dear Girgis," she said, “ I do care for you very, very 
much, or I would not forgive you ; but you must not say 
these things again if you wish to always keep my affec- 
tion — and you don't want to kill it, do you ? " 

She held out her hand, he grasped it passionately in 
his. 

“ Kill it ! " he said, “ I will make it grow and grow until 
it becomes the love you speak of ; there is nothing I would 
not do for you. ... I would die the worst death, and 
it would be sweet, for your sake ; to do you the smallest 
service I would become a slave. But as I cannot do these 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 261 

things, please give me your sympathy — I have found no 
occasion to earn your gratitude and love/" 

Stella laughed affectionately. ‘‘ Live for me, Girgis — that 
will be of much more use and far nobler than dying ; you 
can live and help me to work for Egypt. Do everything 
that lies in your power to teach the people self-respect ; 
teach the men the wisdom of granting liberty to their wives 
and daughters, the wisdom of educating them so that there 
may be many companionable girls in Egypt, like Nancy and 
myself, for men like you to associate with and marry. . . 
She paused. . . . ‘‘ Do you know why you love me, Girgis ? 
Do you know the real reason ? Shall I tell you ? It is 
because I am the first girl you have ever known intimately 
who is a companionable human being ; you think I am very 
wonderful because you never dreamt that there were such 
girls as Nancy and myself : but we aren"t a bit wonderful, 
there are hundreds and thousands like us all over the 
world."" 

God has only made one Hadassah Lekejian,"" he said 
gravely, ‘‘ as He has only made it possible for me to love 
one woman."" 

“ You will love many, many more yet ; you will love one 
who will be far more suited to bring you happiness than I 
am. You don"t know what you need ; you"re only in the 
making yet, although you are so very wise over many things. 
You will remember what I am saying now some day, and 
know that I am right."" 

'' I shall always remember to-day,"" he said, ‘‘ for never 
before have I been so much alone with you ; and I shall 
remember it because I have sworn to you that I w^ill 
accomplish some work for Egypt ... I have determined 
to be as deserving of your gratitude as Vernon Thorpe."" 

Stella looked at him with gratitude already kindling her 
eyes. I shall be very proud of you."" 

“ I hope so."" He said the words so significantly that 
his cousin questioned him anxiously. 

“ It will be work done in my own way and according to 
my own ideas . . ."" he was helping her to mount her donkey, 
which the Arab had brought to them where they were 
seated, as a sign that it was time that they began their 
homeward journey. . . . Girgis held the reins in his hands 
a moment before giving them to her. “ You will always 


262 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


remember that, whatever sacrifice I may make, whatever 
work I may do, it has been done for Egypt, and that I 
have done it for Egypt for your sake/" 

Stella could not look at his burning eyes or take the 
reins from his trembling hands without realizing the 
terribleness of the Oriental passion which her own de- 
sirability as a woman had roused in her hard-headed modern 
cousin. 

In the African desert he looked magnificently in keeping 
with his surroundings. His close-fitting khaki riding 
clothes gave his figure the slim and straight lines of the 
carvings on the temples, where youthful warriors are 
depicted displaying the valour and strength they have 
shown in battle ; but never for one moment did he appeal 
to her senses as a woman, his beauty and virile manhood 
could not make her tremble like a frightened child as she 
trembled when Michael Ireton shook hands with her. 

With her pulses unmoved she looked into his burning 
eyes, and as she took the reins into her own hands she said, 
“I will remember, and I will love you for the work you are 
going to do, as I love you for the work you have done."" 


CHAPTER XXIII 


To the Lekejian household the visit to A1 Fay yum was 
already a thing of the past ; they were busy with prepara- 
tions for going to England. Vernon had been given three 
months sick-leave ; his slow recovery had been very similar 
to many other cases in Egypt, where even the healthiest 
constitutions fail to recuperate after an illness of no great 
seriousness. As every one knows, when you are well in 
Egypt, you are very very well, and the thing is to keep 
well, for getting well again after an illness is always a 
difficult matter. Since their return to Cairo none of the 
family had seen anything of Girgis Boutros, who had bidden 
them farewell at A1 Fayyum. In his parting there had been a 
little more intensity of feeling than Stella thought necessary 
or at all like her cousin, considering that it was for so short 
a distance and likely to be for so short a time ; she won- 
dered if he meant to absent himself from their society until 
his feeling for herself had become more platonic. As she 
had seen and heard nothing of him since that day, she took 
it for granted that her surmise was correct, and admired 
him for the sound sense he was displaying. 

Nicolas had also given them less than usual of his com- 
panionship. He appeared to be very much engrossed in 
a light opera (on Oriental lines) which he was writing in 
collaboration with a Frenchman who had been his greatest 
chum in Paris. The man was much older than Nicolas, 
and had already made a considerable name for himself 
as a composer. His music was lighter and of a much 
more popular nature than Nicolas's, but as he knew com- 
paratively little about Oriental life, he had been anxious 
to secure the collaboration of a man who was not only a 
composer of great charm and originality, but whose know- 
ledge of the East was instinctive. Since their ride across 
the desert to the tomb of the Great Irrigator, Amen-em-hat, 

263 


264 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


he had never let one word escape his lips which Nancy 
could have interpreted as personal, or as meaning more 
than the most ordinary platonic friendship might allow, 
while in every way in her power Nancy had tried to find 
out the true state of his feelings for herself. Sometimes she 
w^as convinced that he was putting a great restraint upon 
himself and that the words he had spoken at A1 Fayyum 
were spoken out of the fullness of his heart ; that in the 
desert, when you are alone with the elements, the elemental 
man gains the upper hand of the conventional man of the 
world — in Nicolas's case a man who w^as obviously deter- 
mined never to cause himself suffering again at the hand 
of a woman. At other times she was equally convinced that 
she had put too much meaning into his Oriental gift of 
flattery, that he cared no more for her than all men care for 
an attractive girl who takes the trouble to make herself 
amusing. Sometimes she was so angry with his apparent 
indifference and impersonal manner that she felt worn out 
with her endeavours to upset his self-control, and with 
her own well -concealed vexation. Upon her own feelings for 
Nicolas she could not form any decision ; indeed, she had 
never questioned herself on the matter — she was only 
conscious of the fact that his good or bad opinion of her 
mattered far too much for her peace of mind, and she was 
in a constant state of irritation and unhappiness if his last 
word or attitude towards her was cynical or indifferent. 
Consciously she worked very hard to unbridle his tongue, 
to make him say regrettable things ; what she was going 
to answer to these ‘‘ unbridlings " she never paused to con- 
sider, for she did not know the state of her own feelings — 
few girls do until a man confesses his love for them. The 
fact that he was a Syrian, and therefore an Oriental, never 
troubled her mind. Nicolas Lekejian was no more Oriental 
to her, in the true or objectionable sense of the word, than 
the Baghdads and other European Orientals, whom she had 
met in London society, and whom the world generally 
accepted un quest ioningly because of their great wealth. 

Their last day of sight-seeing was to be spent in a most 
delightful manner : they were going to take part in the popu- 
lar holiday called ‘‘ Shem-en-Neseem " or ‘‘ The Smelling 
of the Zephyr," which the Cairenes celebrate on the Nile 
and in the semi-tropical gardens of the Delta Barrage 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


265 


below Cairo. It is the most typical non-religious holiday 
in the year, and one which Stella had never seen. On that 
day the populace of Cairo, of all nationalities and creeds, 
joins together in common fellowship to ‘‘ smeU the air.'" 
It is observed on the first day of the Khamaseen, when hot 
southerly winds are of frequent occurrence. The Khama- 
seen commences on the day immediately following the 
Coptic festival of Easter Sunday, and terminates on the 
Day of Pentecost (or Whit-Sunday), an interval of forty- 
nine days. 

But the Shem-en-Neseem is not in any manner a religious 
holiday, although it owes its origin, no doubt, to a Coptic 
superstition that the air on that particular day has a 
beneficial and wonderful effect. There are many customs 
of a religious and superstitious nature belonging to the 
almanack of the Copts which are to-day observed by the 
Moslems of Egypt. 

‘‘ The Saturday of Light," for instance, is of Coptic 
origin, but it is now a common custom (more common in 
the villages than in Cairo) for both men and women on 
the Easter Saturday to adorn their eyes with kohl. This 
is in token of the miraculous light which appears when the 
festival of that day is celebrated in the Holy Sepulchre at 
Jerusalem. 

On the morning of the festival of the Shem-en-Neseem, 
the women of the households rise very early, and before 
doing anything else they take an onion and break it open 
and smell it. In the course of the day thousands of the 
citizens of Cairo ride or walk into the country, or, what is 
still more popular if they can afford it, go by steamer or 
barge, or indeed by any sort of river craft, to the gardens 
of the barrage. The sight on the river is exquisite, for 
every boat is decorated with palms, and flowers, and gay 
Egyptian bunting. No English water carnival was ever 
half so picturesque, for the mixture of races which partake 
in the holiday-making brings together a variety of costumes 
which no pen-picture can describe. Every sort of musical 
instrument is heard, from the classic reed-pipe of the 
Egyptian to the tink-tinking of the Italian mandoline, 
and the extraordinary tunes played in a manner beyond 
recognition on European brass instruments by natives on 
board of chartered excursionist steamers. 


266 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


This “ Smelling of the Air/' as the holiday is vulgarly 
called, shows all strangers, as it showed Nancy, how de- 
lightfully simple most nations but our o^vn can be in 
the matter of enjoyment. Fresh air, flowers, and music 
were all that was necessary for a perfect holiday in the 
eyes of that heterogeneous crowd. 

The sight had delighted the two girls, for it was amazingly 
picturesque as well as extraordinary, and, to their astonish- 
ment, even the Greek Levantines contributed their share 
to the beauty of the scene, for on one soft green lawn in 
the gardens, shaded by flowering tulip trees, they watched 
a group of Greek girls, with dark uncovered heads, dancing 
a minuet with so much charm of movement and regard for 
classic pose that it was impossible not to recognize the 
endurance of heredity. In these shaded gardens, which 
the plentiful waters from the barrage have made into an 
Egyptian Eden, there were family picnics of almost every 
religion and nationality which Cairo, with its long centuries 
of civilization, has drawn to its bosom. From under the 
delicate shade of sweet sunt trees, gay with yellow flowers, 
the darabukah sounded its Oriental beating, to the long- 
drawn-out chant of some musicians who were singing a 
modern Arab love-song in the characteristic Oriental manner. 
Not many yards off, where the magnolia blooms were 
wafting their sensuous fragrance to the nostrils of a large 
family of Italians, cards were being played and siestas 
enjoyed, to wear off the effects of strong vino rosso and 
“ buono appetito/' The children of all races wore gay 
clothes hung with festal charms to protect them from 
harm. Arab women, veiled and shapeless in their wrapping 
of the densest black ; Syrians, whose width of turban dis- 
tinguished their race ; Shereefs, in their dignified robes 
and turbans of green, which set them apart from their less 
fortunate brethren ; the Copt, with his long black coat and 
spectacles, telling of hours spent at the business desk, all 
contributed their quota of picturesque interest to the 
enchanting mise-en-sc^ne, 

Nicolas was with them, and had entered wholeheartedly 
into the girls' desire to see all that there was to be seen of 
the picturesque side of native life on this curious holiday 
when, unlike most festivals in a Mohammedan country, the 
Koran had not originated its proceedings. Here and there 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


267 


in some retired spot in the public gardens a pious Moslem 
was chanting a passage from the ‘'Excellent Book"^ to 
some elderly friends, and once Stella and Nicolas were 
able to stand by and listen to a song being sung in the old 
Arab style. It was in praise of a favourite camel : the 
effect was wonderfully restful. It is a pity that modern 
Egyptian songs and modern Egyptian music have driven 
out the classical Arab music, whose tone, being divided into 
thirds, cannot be produced by native instruments. 

The old Arab songs usually extolled the praise of a 
favourite horse or camel, the glory of war and %hting, the 
beauty of some maiden of purely legendary renown ; modern 
Egyptian songs are, alas ! usually about love, and, as Stella 
and Nicolas knew only too well, often horribly indecent in 
character, at least to European ears. 

On their journey up the river to the gardens Nicolas had 
had an experience of this kind. The boat was crowded, 
and they had been fortunate enough to secure seats in the 
bows, when they were surrounded by a crowd of holiday- 
makers, girls, women, and children as weU as men, of every 
grade of the commercial lower classes in Cairo. 

The boy at the piston pipe, an Egyptian of almost perfect 
physique and feature, a really beautiful creature, dressed in 
the simplest of hot-weather working garments, was shouting 
doAvn a tube from the top deck his orders for steering to 
another of the ship's hands on the lower deck. Nancy saw 
Stella look very uncomfortable and try to move away, 
but she did not understand the reason of her discomfiture. 
Presently she saw most of the women and men smiling 
with good-natured amusement : something was happening 
which she did not understand, and all the while the boy's 
orders had been getting louder and louder. As his language 
grew more and more excited, the people laughed more 
openly ; then suddenly Nicolas, who had been paying for 
their tickets and getting change from the steward, appeared 
on the scene, and Nancy thought she had never seen a face 
so altered with rage . . . she scarcely knew him. For the 
first time she saw the demoniac expression of hate which 
only an Oriental can show in his eyes and in the subtilty of 
his expression. The change in the man startled her ; up 
till now she had only seen him as the gentle, refined dreamer 
whose perfect manners never failed him. The reason for 


268 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


his rage she was totally at a loss to discover, even when 
he put his arm roughly through his sister's and drew her 
unresistingly through the crowd of holiday-makers to the 
farthest part of the boat from where the gesticulating boy 
stood at the speaking-tube. Nancy he left standing in 
blank amazement close to the boy's elbow. For a moment 
she felt a little injured that she, his guest, was left there 
quite alone — as a rule Nicolas guarded her as though she 
would break in pieces if she were roughly touched, as she 
often laughingly told him ; but the next moment he was 
back at her side with the ras of the ship, who addressed 
himself to the unsuspecting youth by kicking him as though 
he were a dog, at the same time expressing to Nicolas the 
folly of his objecting to the boy's very ordinary language. 

As Nicolas drew Nancy away to where his sister was 
seated, she asked him to tell her what was the matter, but 
he could not speak, his face was still white with anger. 
When Nancy reached Stella's side she said ; ‘‘ Do tell me 
what has happened ? Was that boy rude to you ? I 
didn't see him do anything ? He's such a lovely creature, 
surely he wasn't rude ? Did you ever see such a perfect 
mouth or such teeth ? What happened ? " 

“ Unfortunately I understood the words that came 
out of his mouth. ... So I do not think it so lovely." 

“ Were they awful ? " 

Stella shuddered. I want to forget them. . . . Talk of 
something else. . . . Poor Nicolas 1 " 

Nancy was silent for a moment, and then she said 
meditatively, ‘‘ And all these Greek and Italian girls and 
these tiny children understood ! How little one realizes 
when one doesn't know the language ! " 

“ Every one of them understood : they're accustomed to 
it. The tiny children sing revolting songs. . . ." Stella 
sighed : her nerves were quite unstrung. ‘‘ That's why 
father never would allow me to go about alone when I 
first came out, and I didn't understand. ... He hated 
telling me ... it isn't only the men, it's every one ; though 
probably that boy never imagined w^e understood a word 
of what he was saying. He thought we were ordinary 
tourists, and that's the way he's accustomed to giving 
orders to any poor creature whom he thinks is one degree 
below him in his official capacity." 


A WIPE OUT OP EGYPT 


269 


When Nicolas returned to them he was his ordinary 
gentle self again. He had subdued the Oriental passion 
which the boy's obscene language had roused in him, but 
for the rest of the day Nancy understood why he was 
so careful not to allow Stella or herself to listen to native 
singers, or watch the amusing antics of buffoons, until he 
had himself heard the nature of their performances. The 
effect of the little incident, which in itself was very slight, 
as far as Nancy was concerned — for she had not under- 
stood one word of what the boy was saying — was curiously 
far-reaching. It had unsealed a door for her in Nicolas's 
nature which hitherto had been closed. She understood 
that the awful passion she had seen was as much a part 
of him as the gentle and refined personality she was 
accustomed to, and, strangely enough, Oriental though it 
proved to her that he was, it served rather to increase her 
respect for him than to disgust her. When any similar 
thing occurred, Nancy noticed that Nicolas always hedged 
himself in with a stronger wall of reserve than usual, 
and became a few degrees more misanthropic in his attitude 
towards herself, or peculiarly cynical. He seemed to think 
that this most objectionable feature of the Oriental char- 
acter refiected upon himself. He felt that his own feet 
were steeped in mire ; that obscenity and sensuality are 
inseparable, in the Western's idea, from Oriental minds of 
all classes and countries. It was awful to think that his 
exquisite sister, who had been brought up with the un- 
polluted mind of a refined English woman, should be 
subjected, through her intimate knowledge of her own 
language, to hearing expressions which are practically 
unknown to the minds of even the lowest Englishmen. 
On such occasions he hated the East with a deadly hatred, 
and on this particular day he felt, in an inexplicable manner, 
that the boy's language had placed him, as it ought to 
do, poles apart from the sweet hedge-rose he longed to 
gather and wear in his bosom. What right had he, whose 
mind knew the minds of these men, to think of this girl 
as ever entering into his innermost life ? And yet there 
were occasions when he loved the East as only an Oriental 
born with a philosophical turn of mind can love it and 
understand it. 

He had a few acquaintances amongst the highly-edu- 


270 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


cated sheikhs, who enjoy a considerable reputation as 
poets and philologists, and who welcomed him, in spite 
of their difference of faith, into their learned circles. 

In the evenings when he went to their houses, where 
often the only hospitality offered to their guests was a cup 
of black coffee — each man taking his own pipe — ^and the 
only form of entertainment considered necessary was the 
intellectual conversation of the sheikh, he felt proud of 
the land of his adoption, and it was with pleasure that 
he recalled the fact that in the early dynasties it was 
under the influence of Syria that the art and civilization 
of Egypt developed to their highest forms. Much as he 
delighted in the reflnement of everything around him 
on these occasions, he did not allow himself to forget that 
such intellectual banquets in Egypt are reserved for the 
few who devote their life to literary pursuits. With their 
intense love of rhetoric and polite literature they took 
his mind back to the days when Heliopolis was the great 
seat of rhetoric, to the days when Plato and the other 
golden youths of his age went to study there and acquire 
the most necessary of all accomplishments, the gift of 
classical oratory. 


CHAPTER XXIV 


In a native cafe of dishonourable repute in a lonely suburb 
of Cairo, three young men, members of the advanced 
Nationalist party, were waiting for the arrival of their 
fourth companion ; they had met together to discuss their 
last plans for the assassination of the Ediedive, Lord 
Minton, and the Prime Minister. 

Their fourth man was Girgis Boutros ! 

Two of the party, who were the leading spirits of the 
conspiracy, had given violent vent to their feelings during 
the last few months by attacking the partiality of Prance 
because her Government had intimated that conferences"" 
such as the Nationalist party had held in Geneva would 
not only be inexpedient but undesirable in Paris, con- 
sidering the cordial relations between the two countries 
and the recognition by Prance of Britain"s position in 
Egypt. During their residence in Europe as students, 
these mistaken young Egyptian patriots had become 
practically non-believers — non-believers, that is to say, in 
everything except their own ideas as to the proper 
governing of their country. They felt themselves per- 
fectly capable of filling any one of the posts held by the 
great personages whom they were conspiring to murder. 

Girgis Boutros had only recently become one of their 
party ; in his ardent desire to see the establishment of 
Representative Government in Egypt, he had cut himself 
off from aU religious party feeling and thrown himself 
unreservedly into the projects of the most active of the 
advanced Nationalist party. Personal matters had greatly 
helped to make him take this step, a step which naturally 
pleased the Nationalists, who were delighted to have a 
man of Girgis"s wealth and social standing aiding their 
cause and schemes. 

His natural prejudice against the British had been for 
months past fanned into a flaming fire by what he chose 

271 


272 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


to term personal social slights. It is true that since he 
had known Vernon Thorpe there had been many occasions 
upon which he had been submitted to petty indignities from 
the British, for he had been brought into closer touch with 
the sporting community in Cairo than ever before, and over 
and over again his feelings had been deeply wounded. 

The very man who was going to marry his adored 
Hadassah, his own first cousin, the girl who always treated 
him with the affection of a sister — ^indeed, he would rather 
she had not, for sisterly affection stabs the heart which 
is burning with a lover's passion — did not consider him fit 
to enter his club. 

It is impossible to enumerate the petty slights he re- 
ceived or imagined he had received from his future cousin 
by marriage, and from Vernon's friends, who never thought 
of him for one moment as anything else but a “ native," 
with whom, of course, they could not associate on terms 
of equality. 

On the fatal day when he had thrown in his lot with 
the assassins he was in a state of mind which rendered 
him not wholly responsible for his actions. His passion 
for Stella had been growing and growing, and steadily 
gaining hold of his senses. He had been fighting against 
it as best he knew how, but alas ! it was not a very suc- 
cessful fight, for the Oriental youth is not taught to restrain 
himself in his desires, and all that was best in Girgis, as 
well as all that belonged to the vigour of his full Oriental 
manhood, desired and hungered for the sweetness of Stella. 
As his love grew in intensity, and he found no means to 
satisfy it, his health began to suffer. In his sleepless nights 
his hatred for Vernon and for his race, and all that it 
stood for in Egypt, in his mind, became a monomania. 

He loathed Vernon because he knew that Stella con- 
sidered him superior to himself. He loathed him because 
chance had given him the opportunity of figuring as a hero 
in her eyes. He loathed him because he was fair while he 
himself was dark. He loathed him because he knew that 
Vernon cared as little for what he, Girgis Boutros, thought 
of him as if he was a worm. 

Since he had learnt that the date of Stella's marriage 
was practically fixed, he felt that he had nothing left 
to live for. For what was his great wealth if it could not 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


273 


give him the thing his being coveted most in the world ? 
His plans for the betterment of Egypt, he imagined, could 
best be furthered by offering up his life on the altar of 
Nationalism. By dying a martyr's death he, too, would 
be a hero in his beloved's eyes, for in the future she would 
realize the blessings his party had conferred upon her 
country. She had promised to love him if he worked for 
Egypt — ^this was the work Fate had selected for him to do. 

With the calm philosophy of an Oriental he faced death 
fearlessly ; for him the Land which loveth silence " 
held no dread, and he knew that certain death awaited 
him if he either succeeded or failed in his attempt to commit 
the deed that had fallen to his lot. 

The thing he had not sufficient courage or self-control 
to do was to go on living and making the best of what 
is good in life when it has been robbed of what is sweetest. 

On the first occasion when the four conspirators met 
together, at the tomb of their hero Wardani, who had not 
long since assassinated the late Prime Minister, they did 
not know that they had been shadowed by native detectives 
disguised as peasants. 

Although the eavesdroppers could not hear all that 
was said on that occasion, they were quite certain that 
this meeting was of vast importance, for solemn oaths 
were taken, and the two leaders were well known to them 
by sight as dangerous members of the Nationalist party. 
So convinced were they of the fact that they never lost 
sight of these four young men for one moment ; everything 
they did was known to them. A few days later, when 
one of them went to Alexandria quite suddenly to watch 
the goings out and comings in of the Premier and his 
entourage, he was, though he did not suspect it, followed 
the whole time by a detective in the guise of a donkey-boy 
seeking a customer. 

Their second meeting had been held in a small room 
in a city cafe in Cairo. Again the detectives — this time 
dressed as well-off young Arabs who had gone to the cafe 
to indulge in illegal gambling and other vices which appeal 
to the Oriental mind — ^had followed them, but owing to 
the thickness of the walls, for the building was in the 
heart of mediaeval Cairo, they had not been able to hear 
much of what was being said. 

18 


274 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


On this third and last evening, when the conspirators 
were to decide upon the choice of explosives to be used 
by the assassins for the murder of the Ediedive and the 
Prime Minister, they had contrived to sit next to their 
prey during the long tram drive which conveyed them from 
the city to the desert cafe. When they got out of the 
tram they waited until they had seen their victims seat 
themselves in an arbour made of jasmine and oleander 
trees : it was the most attractive portion of the cafe, re- 
served for favoured customers. The detectives, who were 
again dressed as simple fellahin, took up their position 
just outside the screen, in a dark corner which went well 
with their humble appearance. Nothing could have 
suited them better, for here they could hear and also see, 
if they put their eyes close to the screen of green foliage, 
everything that was being said and done, without them- 
selves being seen — for they had no lights except what 
was afforded by the moon and stars in the clear heavens. 

The beauty of the balmy night was lost upon them, as 
it was lost upon the impatient conspirators, who, as the 
time went on and Girgis did not appear, grew alarmed 
and anxious. The detectives noted their growing concern. 

In the clear heavens the stars seemed to oscillate until 
at moments they hung like mosque-lamps over the heads of 
the listeners, who had ordered cups of black coffee for 
which they paid one farthing each. When the soft wind 
moved the jasmine flowers, their sweet, strong scent, so 
dear to native nostrils, drifted through the air. From 
the desert came the idle notes of a flute-player who was 
sitting cross-legged on the sand sending across the desert, 
at his sweet fancy, bird-like notes from his long reed 

nay” and, as though to intensify the stillness of the 
African night, the sharp barking of wolf-dogs, which 
Bedouin farmers set loose at night to guard their flocks 
from raiding jackals, came from the far horizon. 

Inside the cafe, on a raised divan near the door, a bearded 
Turk, well fed, red-fezzed, and yellow-slippered, lay smoking 
his ‘‘ hubble-bubble.'" The long red tube of his pipe 
reached from the floor to his sensual lips, which sleepily 
held the amber mouthpiece. The occasional ‘‘ hubble- 
bubble ” which the water made in the enamelled glass 
bowl on the floor showed that his sleep was not sound 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 275 

enough to prevent him enjoying the indulgence in his 
favourite pastime. 

On the outer floor of the building a pipe-cleaner sat 
plying his pitifully paid trade. 

Nothing could have looked more peaceful than the 
scene, or more typically Oriental. The interior of the 
building, which stretched a considerable way back into 
the desert, was full of all-night gamblers and hashish- 
smokers, customers who had business to transact or 
pleasures to indulge which did not meet the approval of 
the city police. 

In Cairo the cola or midnight call to prayer was being 
chanted from the royal mosques as Girgis Boutros, on his 
fleet-footed mule, rode through the city. On his unheeding 
ears fell the beautiful and familiar words which open the 
midnight prayer as weU as the call at sunrise. 

‘‘ Prayer is better than sleep, there is no God but God ; 
alone He hath no companion ; to Him belongeth the 
dominion, and to Him belongeth praise. He giveth life 
and causeth death ; and He is living and shall never die. 
In His hand is blessing ; and He is almighty. There is 
no Deity but God, and we will not worship any beside Him."' 

As this call is not an obligatory prayer, there are few 
in these degenerate days who rise from their beds to per- 
form its supererogatory act of devotion, so it was only here 
and there that some devout flgure prostrated itself to the 
ground as the chant from the throats of the mueddins 
floated out to the sleeping city. 

In reposeful cafes fat Mussulmans were sleeping on the 
matted floors, rolled up in white shawls like children ; the 
less satisfled were sitting cross-legged, smoking their 
shibouks. In the background the gay colouring of the 
painted pipe-racks and mirrors caught the fltful gleam of 
dying lamps. The absence of the awful noise which fills 
the native streets in the daytime would have delighted the 
stranger and tempted him to linger over the beauty of 
the exquisite effects of light and shade, for, without the 
usual danger of being jostled and knocked about by the 
never-ending traffic of camels and donkeys and mules, he 
could have enjoyed the majesty of the mosques which broke 
the outline of the narrow streets with their soaring minarets. 


276 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


In the brilliance of the midday hours, when the crooked 
streets are packed with dense masses of unsavoury poor, 
the sight-seer has little chance of realizmg the grace of 
their architecture and the age of their stones. 

But Girgis, as his mule bore him swiftly past Byzantine 
arches and Koran schools, had no eyes for beauty and 
no ears for prayer: he was oblivious of all things save 
the one only, the immediate necessity of joining his com- 
panions in the desert cafe as quickly as possible. 

In the morning he had seen Nicolas Lekejian, who had 
told him very briefly and casually that Vernon Thorpe was 
going back to England in Lord Minton's private suite, 
and that Stella and her mother were preparing to leave for 
England. Nicolas, little knowing the importance of his 
information, wondered to himself why Girgis had suddenly 
left him mstead of going with him, as he had promised, 
to see his aunt and cousin. 

Since the moment that Nicolas told him that Vernon 
Thorpe was to be in Lord Minton's party on his journey 
from Cairo to Alexandria, he had thought of nothing else. 
He was overwhelmed with the knowledge that it was he, 
Girgis Boutros, who must kill the man his cousin Hadassah 
was going to marry ; that is to say, if he carried out the vow 
he had made at the tomb of Wardani, to wreck the train 
which conveyed Lord Minton and his suite to Alexandria. 

Though the cafe lay some miles outside the city, and he 
was late even for an Oriental's idea of punctuality, he 
seemed to be drawing near to the spot aU too quickly. His 
mind was still in a state of chaos, his determination how 
to act all unformed ; yet he dared not curb the pace of his 
beast, and instinctively he had taken the shortest route 
to the appointed meeting-place. Only a quarter of an hour 
was left, and not one gleam of light had come to him, not 
one idea had formed itself in his mind of what he was to 
say to his compatriots. He seemed to be riding in a horrible 
nightmare. 

As in a mirage he saw the tomb of Wardani, where he and 
his companions had taken the oath that they would assassi- 
nate the enemies of their party ; the vision moved before 
him with extraordinary vividness as his beast carefully 
picked its way over stony ground and through heavy sand. 
He wished that it was he himself who was lying in that 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


277 


tomb, that it was he who had done that great deed for his 
country, so that he would be saved doing one or other of 
two deeds which his soul abhorred. He must either revoke 
his vow or kill the man whom his cousin was going to marry ! 

It was almost one o’clock before he arrived at the cafe. 
On his appearance his companions indulged in lengthy 
and polite salutations, for even the greatest impatience and 
extreme anxiety must give way to Oriental politeness. 
The most perfect regard for the etiquette of friends meeting 
on an important occasion was indulged in, and after the 
necessary exchange of formalities, Girgis was offered some 
refreshment and invited to be seated at the table, which 
held various Oriental pipes and cups of coffee. But Girgis 
would not sit down : he remained standing, while he refused 
all forms of hospitality. 

The eldest of the party, noticing his strange aloofness 
and the very evident nervous strain under which he was 
labouring, asked him why he was so late. Had anything 
of importance happened to cause him one whole hour’s 
delay ? 

“ Yes,” Girgis said, something which is of grave im- 
portance to me has happened.” 

The tone of his voice more than his words made his 
companions look at him anxiously, and caused the eaves- 
droppers behind the Jasmine screen to strain their ears. 
The fact that Girgis Boutros had thrown in his lot with 
these desperadoes of the Socialist party had caused them 
great astonishment ; they had long been aware of his 
Nationalistic tendencies and his severance from all religious- 
political parties, but they had not been prepared for him 
lending himself to such desperate measures. After Girgis’s 
significant remark they had to strain their eyes as well as 
their ears, for the conversation between the conspirators 
was conducted in a truly Oriental fashion. Much was 
expressed that was not said, and much was said that had 
to be gathered from involved and obscure language. The 
Eastern saying that the walls have ears ” is accountable 
perhaps for the fact that Orientals have from time imme- 
morial learnt to speak and give orders without using words. 
But in this case the walls had eyes as well as ears, eyes 
that had not only an Oriental’s knowledge of a language 


278 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


without words, but had the double sight acquired by highly 
trained detectives. 

“ Will you kindly explain the nature of your informa- 
tion ? The words were spoken with an acidity which 
showed that Girgis’s words had fallen upon subtle ears, 
ears quick to note the finest infiection of voice and expres- 
sion of speech. 

The information which I received this morning, and 
which detained me to-night, has nothing to do with the 
subject we have met here to discuss, except as regards myself. 
It is a purely personal matter, but it affects me so gravely 
that I have come here to-night, not to help you to carry out 
your plans, but to deliver myself up into your hands.'" 

The words ‘‘ traitor," ‘‘ cursed Christian," and hisses 
passed from lip to lip. Instinctively the three men closed 
round him. 

Girgis felt their instant distrust, and knew the reason : 
hewas a Christian, they were Mussulmans, even if they had 
renounced their faith politically. 

‘‘ I wish to say that I cannot carry out the deed I have 
vowed to perform." 

Obscene curses instantly fiew from the lips of his com- 
panions, foul insults were hurled at the Christian dog 
they had always known him to be. Death to the re- 
voker ! " they hissed as they gripped his wrists and held 
them in their grasp like those of an arrested pickpocket. 

But it was only for one moment. With the fighting power 
of an ancient Pharaoh, Girgis fiung them off as easily as 
though their restraining grasp had been from the hands of 
delicate girls. I will allow no man to treat me as a 
coward," he said ; I am alone and unarmed, and at your 
mercy." 

In the most insulting words the leader of the party 
demanded a full explanation for his so suddenly revoking 
his vows. 

‘‘ I must refuse to give my reason," Girgis said. 

Then let me recall the fact to your memory that 
‘ death ' is the penalty to be paid by any one of the party 
who revokes his vow — ^you agreed to that very necessary 
clause in our agreement at Wardani's tomb ? " 

“ I have not forgotten it," Girgis said solemnly, I deserve 
death at your hands, and I am prepared to meet my God." 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


279 


And he was spealdng as he felt : he had no desire to 
break any of the vows he had made, and death meant so 
little to him, since the sweetness of life had been denied 
him, that he accepted the fact of it with quiet approval. 

You will also recollect that on that same night, at that 
same sacred spot, you solemnly swore, by the blood of our 
beloved hero, who gave his life for our cause, that if by any 
chance whatsoever you were compelled to renounce the 
part you vowed to undertake in the affair, you would 
give a truthful explanation of your reason for withdrawing. 
The sacredness of such a vow may mean nothing to the son 
of a black camel, but if you persist in refusing to tell us 
your reason, we will drag it from you as the secrets of your 
forefathers were dragged from their lips when they re- 
nounced their faith for fear of bodily torture, and were 
received into the bosom of Allah."' 

Remembering that such a vow had been taken, Girgis 
determined to tell them the truth ; but first he cursed them 
from the bitterness of his heart. 

Out of the fullness of his language, which is at its fullest 
in its curses and oaths, he rent them in pieces, for he 
realized in that brief moment that it was because he was a 
Christian that they had instantly denounced him as a 
traitor and had treated him as a thief. In that moment 
he had seen more plainly than anything else could have 
shown him that, in spite of the persuasions the Moslems had 
offered to the malcontent Copts, they would, as soon as 
self-government was established in Egypt, drive them out 
of the land and rid it of even every native Christian. He 
recognized the hatred of the man who is born a Moslem for 
the man who is not of his faith. These feelings flooded his 
brain like an inrolling wave dashing its full force against 
a harbour wall ; his curses had scarcely left his lips before 
he said : ‘‘If there had been any need to treat me as a 
prisoner and a traitor I would not have come here to-night ; 
but as I swore at the tomb of Wa.rdani to tell you the 
reason if I revoked my vow, I will do so now. My cousin," 
he spoke very slowly, “ is going to marry an Englishman. ... 
I have just heard that he is going to be in the train, which 
I swore to wreck on its journey to Alexandria. I cannot 
kill him." 

Filthy epithets'expressed the scorn of the three National- 


280 


A WIPE OUT OP EGYPT 


ists for his sentimental reason, but the listening detectives 
felt relieved that their estimate of the young Copt’s charac- 
ter had not been at fault. 

And you wish for and seem proud of the fact that this 
man, who belongs to the cursed race who rule our country, 
and tax our people, and boast of their inability to under- 
stand us, speaking of Orientals as though we were animals 
and not superior human beings to themselves — this race who, 
while boasting that they cannot understand us, yet wish 
to rule us — this race of bribe-receivers and seducers, who 
despise all Orientals and, above all, aU Christian Orientals 
— this is the race you are pleased and proud to annex yourself 
to by marriage — for one of this race you are Avilling to turn 
renegade to your party and sacrifice your principles.” 

“ I do not wish my cousin to marry this Englishman,” 
Girgis said hotly, but I cannot kill him ... I have come 
here to-night to ask you to kill me and find a substitute for 
my part in your conspiracy.” 

That is a request you will make many times in the 
course of the next few weeks,” the leader said. ‘‘ Death 
will seem very desirable ! But you will live long enough to 
wish, every hour of the day and every moment of the night, 
that you had not been transferred from the body of your 
filthy father into that of your corrupt mother, to appear 
with diabolical soul in human form.” 

The actual words used were too immoral to have their 
equivalent in English. It is impossible to render literally 
into English any conversation between natives. What 
had taken place during this eventful half-hour had either 
been expressed in a form of language which is wholly 
untranslatable or by signs ; but this is what it meant in 
plain English. 

At a sign from the leader a move was made by the party ; 
the meeting for the night was to be abandoned. Instantly 
the detectives were on the alert : it was their plan to close 
in upon the men as they left the arbour, which they must 
do by the narrow opening in the oleander hedge. 

Though Girgis protested that it was imnecessary, he 
quietly submitted to being bound before going with his 
companions to the place they chose for his concealment. 
It would naturally be some hole where his unclean tongue 
could find no chance of betraying their secrets. 


A WIPE OUT OF EGYPT 


281 


Even if he had desired to leave them, which he did not, 
he knew that the attempt to do so would be useless, for they 
all carried firearms, while he himself was unarmed, and 
experience had told him that there are many nameless 
graves in the desert which secret hands have dug. 

As the three men were emerging from the arbour with 
Girgis in their midst, their exit was blocked by six fellahin ! 

With the arrogance shown by Egyptians belonging to 
the better-off classes to the poor who treat them wdth the 
slightest sign of disrespect, the Nationalists tried to thrust 
them out of their way. To their intense surprise the six 
fellahin covered them with revolvers. 

“ You are charged with conspiring to murder the Khedive, 
the Prime Minister, and Lord Minton. We therefore arrest 
you in the name of the Khedive.'' 

In the scuffle that ensued two of them allowed themselves 
to be handcuffed tamely, but the leader of the party 
managed to draw his revolver and shoot Girgis Boutros, 
for it flashed into his mind that the Christian dog had 
betrayed them, that his coming to deliver himself up into 
their hands had only been part of his well-laid plot to trap 
them. 

As Girgis sank to the ground, the man who had shot 
him and was now struggling to free himself from the grasp 
of the detectives, spat upon his upturned face and kicked 
his tarbush off his head. It was his last effort : while he was 
insulting the wounded man he felt his hands caught and his 
wrists forced into handcuffs. His companions could not 
assist him : they were already manacled. 

The whole affair of their arrest had been so neatly and 
quickly effected that it was over in less than ten minutes. 

The pipe-cleaner was still cleaning his master's pipes 
for the next day's customers, the flute-player was still 
piping his liquid tune, when the prisoners were escorted 
from the cafe by the detectives and their accomplices who 
had been lying in wait not far away. 

Before the first pale light of dawn had fallen upon the 
brooding features of the Sphinx, or the stars had vanished 
from the heavens, the three conspirators were safely 
lodged in gaol and Girgis Boutros was in the Kasr-el- 
Hainy, the city hospital of Cairo. 


CHAPTER XXV 


Once again Stella was seated in her father’s garden 
awaiting the arrival of her lover. He was coming to lunch, 
and to spend his idle midday hours with her, probably 
the last before his departura for England. In the dark 
pergola, where only glints of the fierce African sun could 
penetrate the thickness of the luxuriant foliage, it was easy 
to forget the heat and squalor of the native city, with its 
plague of flies, which make it unbearable in the hot months, 
and the sun-blazoned side-paths of the Esbekiya square, 
where natives who have nothing to sell, and wish to beg 
from the wealthy travellers, lie on the flagstones as though 
they were there to provide the homeless with beds. The 
pergola where Stella was seated might have been in some 
old garden in Italy — where a luxurious climate and ancient 
stones make ‘‘ un paradise ” of an earthly garden — but 
for the occasional cries that reached her ears which were 
of purely Oriental sound, and for the not infrequent chant- 
ing of boatmen, who, to ease the burden of their labour, 
were singing some familiar Nile song ; or, it might be, for 
the swirling overhead of grey-winged kites, as they flapped 
and circled in their low flying from tree to tree. 

Presently Vernon appeared at the end of the long pergola. 
At his coming Stella rose eagerly from her seat in the central 
kiosk, where iced drinks and cool fruits were temptingly 
displayed on Persian dishes of ancient blue enamel. 

But her steps slackened as she saw the expression on 
her lover’s face ! He carried an open newspaper 
crushed in his hand. As he reached her he threw it at laer 
feet, saying, Read what your beautiful cousin has done, 
or rather what he tried to do ! ” 

Too taken aback to even feel hurt at his abrupt and 
unmannerly greeting, Stella took up the paper with shak- 
ing hands ; it was a copy of the Coptic daily paper, the 

282 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


283 


‘‘ A1 Watan/" which, for the benefit of its foreign subscribers, 
has the English version of its contents printed side by 
side with the Arabic. 

Where Vernon's hand had crushed its print Stella saw 
in large letters the words, ‘‘ Attempted assassination of 
the Ediedive, the British Agent, and the Premier. Con- 
spirators captured." 

A little further down she read the names of the four men 
who had been arrested : Girgis Boutros was amongst the 
number. No details of the capture were given beyond the 
fact that the editor expressed deep regret that Girgis 
Boutros, an infiuential and highly respected young Copt, 
had intended to WTeck the train which was to convey Lord 
Minton to Alexandria on his departure from Cairo for 
England. Nothing was said of his renunciation of his 
vows, or of the serious condition in which he now lay in 
the city hospital. 

With a cry horrible to hear, so physical it seemed in 
its agony, Stella covered her face with her hands as though 
to blind herself to her misery of shame, and, turning her 
back on her lover, she flew back to her seat at the end of 
the long pergola. There, in an attitude of hopeless despair, 
she flung herself down on her knees and buried her head 
in her arms. 

Vernon followed her slowly, his heart not softened one 
bit by the girl's pitiful weeping — the girl whom, according 
to his fashion, he loved — for he was conscious of one thing 
only at that moment — ^his nature knew no complicated 
emotions — ^his intense hatred of her cousin Girgis Boutros 
and of all things Egyptian. The idea that he was to be 
connected with such filthy scum of the earth as he now 
considered Girgis was revolting to his senses ; everything 
that was English in him rose up fiercely against it. As he 
came closer to Stella he felt for the first time that, beautiful 
as she looked even in her misery, she belonged to a 
people that could never be his, that in her desolation she 
herself was actually one of them. He could not stoop to 
comfort her. Why was she not filled with rage and anger 
as he was, rather than with distress ? If she felt one particle 
of sorrow for this wretched cousin of hers, then she well 
deserved all the humiliation his deed would undoubtedly 
bring upon her family. She had brought the disgrace 


284 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


upon herself by having allowed the intimacy of cousinship 
to exist between them. He had offered to cut her off 
for ever from these horrible relations when he had first 
discovered what they were like, and she had emphatically 
refused to consent to his wishes. 

When her weeping, which, in its intensity, was due to 
the overstrained state of her nerves, had abated, Vernon 
said coldly, Perhaps you will at last consent to leave 
these connections of yours and live in England . . . will 
you, Stella ? 

His last three words were spoken with a little more 
softness. The beauty of the bowed head and the grace of 
the girPs supple figure was appealing to his senses ; he 
expected her to raise tear-stained eyes to his, with gratitude 
gleaming through them like sunshine in rain ; but instead, 
to his utter amazement, she sprang to her feet with all 
the swiftness of her Eastern inheritance, and faced him 
with blazing eyes. 

How dare you ? "" she cried. ‘‘ Oh ! how dare you, 
Vernon ? How can you, at this moment of all others, when 
I must cling to my people, when I must keep the promise 
I made to Girgis 1 He has done this thing because I asked 
him to . . . oh, you poor boy ! . . . you poor, wrong- 
headed Girgis, what have you done ? Was it because you 
wanted to be a hero in my eyes ? Is this your work 
for Egypt ? 

Good Christ ! Vernon said slowly, “ so you are in 
it ? "" His face had become ashen white . . . My God ! 
so this is what you have come to ... is this how you 
have loved me ? "" 

‘‘ It had nothing to do with my love for you : I would 
have given my life for you as you offered up yours to save 
my father."" Her eyes flung a new defiance at him. 

‘‘ For the sake of the love I believed in once,"" he said, 

don"t lie to me, if you and your cursed race are capable 
of speaking the truth ! "" 

The full significance oi Jiis interpretation of her words 
had not yet dawned on Stella, but naddened into Oriental 
passion at his insulting speech, she struggled for breath 
to speak. Her English upbringing and her father"s 
strength of will, which she had inherited, helped her to 
address her lover with perfect control over her choice of 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


285 


words, although her voice was breathless with emotion. 

“ As you are incapable of believing that we can speak the 
truth, there is no use in my trying to explain to you why 
my cousin has apparently consented to do this deed. You 
must think what you choose . . . nothing I can say would 
alter your opinion. . . . You naturally imagine that it is 
from the very lowest motive ; he is simply a murderer in 
your eyes."" 

“ His reason is quite plain : you have already explained 
it. You were to reward him by giving him your love. I 
was to be in that train, and he knew it I From an English- 
man"s point of view he is nothing more or less than a 
murderer, though he may choose to term himself a political 
assassin/" 

The girPs shriek of horrified rage rent the air ; she fell 
at his feet ! The shame of his thought of her overwhelmed 
her. Oh, God, let me die . . ."" she moaned, “ if you 
have thought this thing, if you have believed that I could 
love the man who would willingly have killed the saviour 
of my father ! "" 

“ V^at else is there to believe ? "" he said. ‘‘ Don"t play- 
act, Stella. Girgis has been arrested for conspiring to murder 
the British Agent on his journey to Alexandria — ^you 
and all your family knew that I was going to be in his 
party, and you yourself have confessed that you promised 
to love your cousin when the deed was done."" 

Something very like hatred gleamed in Stella"s eyes for 
the man to whom she had given her girPs first love, as she 
said very cruelly : ‘‘ Only because of the gratitude I shall 
always feel for you, and nothing more, will I allow myself 
to deny your horrible accusation. ... I never knew 
anything about this hideous crime my cousin was going 
to commit, and I do not believe for one instant that he 
was aware of the fact that you were going to be in that 
train . . . how could he have known ? . . . I have not 
seen him. . . . When I told you that he had done this 
thing for my sake, I meant that it was because he had 
promised to work for ^^pt to please me."" She sighed. 
“ I remember now he said it would be work done in his 
own way; and this is what he meant."" 

‘‘ Leaving personal matters alone,"" he said coldly, ‘‘ I 
am afraid you cannot alter the principal facts of the case, 


286 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


that he was one of the conspirators who have been arrested 
for plotting to ‘ kill the enemies of their country/ as they 
would describe their brutal murders/' 

Stella was sitting in a huddled heap on the gravel path, 
but she did not raise her head. ‘‘ If you would only try 
to understand ! " she said. ‘‘It is because he does most 
sincerely believe that these men in the service of the 
English Government are the enemies of his country that 
he has given his young life for the cause : these patriots, 
as they unwisely consider themselves to be, have not feared 
death — ^you must admit that ? I asked him to do work for 
Egypt, to prove his love for me. I said I would love him 
if he did — ^not in any way in which, as your faithful wife, I 
might not have loved him. And this is what he has done, 
this thing which you, the man I once unquestioningly loved 
and promised to obey, cannot understand. You pride 
yourself on not understanding us, you rejoice in the fact 
that you never could ; I fail to see that it is anything to 
boast of." 

“ You are quite right," he said ; “ I don't, and never will 
understand. Thank God, treachery is not a character- 
istic of the English race. We may be stupid ... I know 
you think us so, but we are even by your race considered 
trustworthy. I told you the very first week I arrived in 
this hateful place that it was best for you to get out of 
it, to cut yourself free from its infiuence and from the 
relations who were nothing to you at that time. I 
wanted you to remain the Englishwoman I thought you 
were in every respect except name." 

Stella rose to her feet very slowly : there was something 
very Eastern in her movements, as she looked at him 
with unlovely scorn in her eyes and said : “ You see I am 
not, and never was an Englishwoman ? " 

“ Well, Irish, if you like," he said impatiently, “ what 
does it matter ? " 

“ Or an Irishwoman," she said, still more bitterly. 

“ I am a Syrian ; I belong to a race which taught the 
Egyptians a higher civilization thousands of years before 
you and your island barbarians were discovered to the 
world. I am Hadassah Lekejian, Nicolas Lekejian the 
Syrian's daughter, and I should be far more ashamed of 
denying the fact or of leaving my people because the man 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


287 


I loved scorned them than of having caused poor Girgis to 
do this mad deed, a deed he attempted to do from a sense 
of duty to his country ! Her voice softened. Are you 
totally incapable, Vernon, of seeing any other person's 
point of view but your own — ^are you so characteristically 
English ? " 

“ With women seeing things from other points of view 
generally means ‘ condoning the deed,' I find. I'm afraid 
I can't." Vernon's eyes were as cold as his manner was 
unloverlike, but he was more than a little surprised when 
Stella, upon hearing his answer, said quite firmly : 

‘‘ Then let this be good-bye ; I will never see you again. 
I have forgotten father too long, I must go to him . . • 
he must by this time have heard more than the papers 
tell us." As she spoke she quietly took the ring from her 
finger, which he had placed there with so much love and 
tenderness, and held it out to him : ‘‘ Please take it back," 
she said, ‘‘ I need not wear it now." 

He looked at the emblem of their engagement vacantly 
for one moment — their parting had come as an overwhelm- 
ing shock to his senses — as it lay in the palm of his hand. 
Its almost childish size struck him even at the moment as 
pathetic : this tall girl in front of him, whom he had once 
sworn to cherish, was cast in such delicate lines that his 
strong manhood suddenly hungered to possess her. The 
next moment he had sent the ring fiying through the air. 
As it fell it hit the wing of a little Cupid who had been in 
the act of stringing his bow on the top of an old stone pedestal 
for many centuries. When he turned and faced her all 
his belief in the treachery she must have inherited from 
her people showed itself plainly in his eyes. His hands 
were dug deep in his pockets : he would not trust himself 
to hold hers. “ Let things be as you wish," he said brutally ; 
'' you are right : this had better be good-bye if there is to 
be nothing more between us . . . you wish it ? " 

Yes, I wish it," she said, ‘‘ for even if I loved you as I 
once did, I would not allow you to sacrifice yourself by 
marrying me. I know now all that you think about my 
people, and as I owe you an unpayable debt for having 
saved my father, I would not be so ungrateful. . . ." She 
straightened herself, as though to gain fresh courage. I 
must go to him, and not waste time : this will almost kill 


288 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


him/^ Her voice shook as she spoke. “ I can't say any 
more, I have no more to say " — she held out her hand. ‘‘ I 
only beg of you, go home to England and forget aU about 
me and my people ; but when you do think of me, don't 
be harder than you can help : try to remember that you 
do not understand or wish to understand the character- 
istics of the people whose blood is in my veins." 

Vernon did not take her outstretched hand. ‘‘ It is 
horrible to part like this," he said. ‘‘ Have you quite 
forgotten the old days in England, when nothing of all 
this sort of thing ever entered our heads, when you loved 
me so truly, or so I imagined, that you would have done 
anything I asked of you ? ... You would never have let 
any one come before me then." 

“ I was a girl then, and girls are very selfish in their 
love ; now I am a woman, and no self-respecting woman 
should let herself be governed in aU things by the man 
she loves, if she disapproves of the demands he makes 
upon her — that sort of love is mere slavery, it is no mere 
animal passion. ... I couldn't do the things you ask, 
Vernon, and stiU love you." 

“ Yet I asked so little." Vernon spoke in the past tense, 
for, unconsciously, he was just a little relieved that it 
was Stella herself who had broken off their engagement. 
At the same time he could not bear to let her go out of 
his life with this feeling of bitterness in her heart. Her 
beauty was as desirable as ever in his eyes — it was madden- 
ing to think that he was losing it. It was galling to his 
pride that she could surrender him so easily — surrender 
him for the horrible natives to whom she considered that 
she belonged. 

‘‘ You asked me to forsake my people for yours, to 
sink my identity in yours ; for you take no interest in 
my interests, and never tried to — I have always had to 
throw myself into yours. You wanted me to make the 
social world to which you belong forget that you had 
married ' a wife out of Egypt ' ... to forget it where 
any stigma might be attached to the fact. In places, per- 
haps, where they do not know the manner in which the 
English treat us and look down upon us in the East, it 
might have added a touch of picturesque interest to 
your household if you had said ‘ My wife is a Syrian ' . . . 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


289 


but the fact would have to be talked of with discrimina- 
tion. . . She paused. . . . ‘‘ I'm afraid my woman's 
understanding of the respect a wife should have for her 
husband has not stood the test of your demands in these 
things." 

“If you don't love me it is best to say good-bye; it 
takes a cleverer chap than I am to follow all that you 
wish your words to imply." He spoke impatiently. 

They walked in silence together along the garden path, 
where sun-birds of brilliant plumage were darting from 
shrub to shrub, dipping their long beaks into luscious tree- 
flowers of Eastern splendour, and roses of every hue. 

At the parting of their ways Stella put her hand on 
Vernon's arm : there was pleading in her touch. “ Every- 
thing you have said and done that has hurt me and my 
people, Vernon, will be forgotten — everything will be 
forgiven . . . even your "... she hesitated, “ even your 
belief in my treachery towards yourself. We will always 
think of you as the man who saved my father's life. . . ." 
Tears filled her eyes. “ Sometimes, when I have thought 
of what you did and of all that it means to me, I could 
let you treat me as your slave. I could willingly obey 
your most unlovely commands." 

The next moment she had gone, and Vernon was left 
wondering ! 


19 


CHAPTER XXVI 


On her way to her father's private office, which could 
only be reached by crossing the inner courtyard of the 
house, which in the old Mamluk days had been the re- 
creation ground for the women of the harem, Stella met 
Nancy, who, the moment she saw her, ran to her and caught 
her by the arm excitedly. ‘‘ Oh, Stella, what is the 
matter ? You look awful ! And Nicolas wouldn't even 
speak to me just now when I passed him. He was looking 
for you. Has anything very terrible happened ? " 

Stella pressed the girl's hand convulsively in hers. 
“ Yes, something awful has happened : but let me go to 
father. ... I can't speak, dear, don't ask me. . . . Where 
is Nicolas ? Which way did he go ? " 

“ That way," Nancy said, pointing to the passage which 
led to Mr. Lekejian's office. She did not try to restrain 
Stella, but stood lost in wonder and filled with a miserable 
anxiety. The way in which Nicolas had drawn himself 
away from her, as though he was suffering from some 
infectious disease which might harm her, had made her 
think for the moment that some plague had broken out in 
the city, and that he had been in close contact with the 
infected. But the awful look of misery, mixed with anger, 
which his eyes expressed when she implored him to tell 
her what had happened, contradicted that impression ; 
there was something far more personal and tragic in it. 

Unconscious of almost everything but the desire to 
reach her father's office, Stella fled on, regardless of Nancy's 
discomfiture. So Nancy sat herself down to think on 
the gnarled root of the ancient lebbek tree, whose top 
branches reached right up to the exquisite meshrebiya 
work which had served as a window-screen for the women's 
drawing-room in days gone by. The tree bore a legend 
that was touched with romance, for from its branches a 

290 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


291 


daring lover had once reached the pierced wood-work of 
the jealously guarded window, and had sung to his fair 
Juliet, who could see him without herself being seen. 
One dark night this same veiled Juliet slipped from the 
screened window to the top branches of the tree and 
escaped from her prison in the harem to her lover's arms. 
But to-day the daughter of the house was a Christian, 
and this old romance belonged to Moslem days. 

As Stella neared her father's door she met her brother 
coming to it from the opposite direction. Both stopped 
instantly and looked despairingly at one another. 

Where is Vernon ? " Nicolas said. I thought you 
were with him, Stella ! Does he know ? " 

‘‘ He has gone, we have parted for ever ! How is father 
bearing it ? Does mother know ? " 

Nicolas put his arm tenderly round his sister ; she drew 
herself away. 

‘‘ Please don't, dear. I want all my courage for father. 
. . . Vernon doesn't matter — I mean our parting doesn't . 
... If he could think such things of Girgis, how could I 
marry him ? " 

Nicolas looked at her in amazement. Was she in ignor- 
ance of the depth of their cousin's villainy ? “ But 

Stella, don't you know, don't you understand, haven't 
you realized what Girgis was trying to do ? " he shuddered. 

Yes, of course I do. It was a hideous and cruel thing, 
but according to the poor boy's lights these men they 
were plotting to kill were all the enemies of his country ; 
that is a very different thing from trying to murder his 
cousin's lover from jealousy ? Vernon imagined that 
Girgis knew that he was to be in the British Agent's 
party ! " 

There was silence for a moment, then Nicolas said very 
slowly in Arabic : ‘‘ He did know, Stella. . . . God have 
mercy on his soul ! " 

Stella suppressed the cry that sprang to her lips ; she 
caught her brother by his shoulders and made him face 
her. That is a lie, Nicolas. Oh, say it is a lie ! Some 
one has dared to tell you that lie ! Have you seen Girgis ? 
Did he tell you himself ? I won't believe this hideous 
thing until he himself confesses it : he couldn't do it, I 
know he couldn't." 


292 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


Nicolas took her two hands from his shoulder and held 
them firmly and lovingly in his own. ‘‘ Be brave, Stella, 
and face the horrible truth. Girgis did know — I told him 
myself ! I met him early yesterday morning. I told 
him that we were leaving for England, and that Vernon 
was going home in Lord Minton's suite." 

Stella did not speak. With bowed head she held her 
brother's hands passionately in hers . . . when words came 
she said : ‘‘ And I loathed Vernon for thinking such a 
thing possible " — she spoke as though she was visualizing 
the scene which had just passed between her lover and 
herself — and it was true, it was what he thought." 

She looked at her brother with a face so stricken and 
withered with shame that half a woman's lifetime, a life- 
time of suffering, seemed to have passed over it in the 
last few minutes. 

Girgis must have been mad," Nicolas said. ‘‘ He 
would never have brought this shame upon us in his 
normal state of mind. . . . He has ruined your happiness 
. . . and he has . . ." 

She stopped him by exclaiming : “We must go to 
father . . . will you find mother and let me go to him ? 
Mother went out — I think to Cook's." 

“ I'll find mother," Nicolas said ; “ she may not know. 
Poor mother ! " 

When Stella opened the door of her father's office her 
eyes met a sight which she would never fail to remember 
in after years — whatsoever happiness her future might 
bring forth. 

In the ancient Coptic language Nicolas Lekejian was 
praying aloud on his knees, beside his business desk ; his 
head was buried so despairingly in his arms that only his 
red fez could be seen. Stella went silently up to him, 
and, slipping down on her knees by his side, put her arms 
across his shoulder and joined in his prayers. Her touch 
made him turn his head and look at her. 

“ Hadassah ! " he cried, “ Hadassah ! " In a moment 
his arms were open and his child was in them, with her 
slim arms encircling his neck, her passionate kisses covering 
his worn face. 

“Hold me closer, father darling, hold me far closer; 
never let me go ; let me stay with you always ! " 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


293 


The tears that fell from his eyes tasted salt to her lips. 

‘‘ Don't cry, father ; don't let this make you ill again. 
Girgis loves you ; he must have been mad; you must for- 
give him." 

God in His mercy forgive him," Nicolas Lekejian said, 
“ for the shame he has brought on my household." As 
he spoke he rose from his knees, and, seating himself in his 
business chair, he held out his arm for his daughter to seat 
herself on his knee. Never since she was a little child 
had his beautiful Hadassah seemed so near to him. The 
tender affection he had given her as an infant he bestowed 
upon her now, the old pet-names came instinctively to 
his lips ; out of the well of anguish that he felt for her, 
the waters of healing were poured forth abundantly ; 
broken sentences of sympathy, fearful words of inquiry 
dropped from his lips. ‘‘ When was she to see Vernon ? 
Would she like her father to see him first and spare her 
all that he could ? His little Hadassah, his pearl among 
daughters, the precious jewel of his bosom ! " 

With her two hands Stella raised his face to hers, and 
looking into his eyes she said : ‘‘ Father, I will tell you 
something that will lessen your sorrow for me a little." 

What is that, my daughter ? " 

I have seen Vernon this morning. I have broken 
off our engagement." In an agony of sympathy for his 
child the old man crushed the girl's hands in his . . . but 
she went on unheedingly ... ‘‘I would have married him 
before this happened if he had wished me to . . . because 
he saved your life. . . ." She bent her lips impulsively to 
his and kissed him. . . . ‘' Oh, dearest, if we had lost 
you ! . . She shut her eyes, and trembled at the misery 
the idea conveyed. . . . ‘' What should we have done ? . . . 

I would have married him, but I did not love him — it would 
have been from gratitude. It would have been for want 
of courage to tell the man who saved you for us that I did 
not love him." 

‘‘ Hadassah ! " Her father's voice evinced absolute 
consternation. ‘‘ You did not love Vernon ? " 

No, father, not any more ; I once did . . ." she sighed, 
but that sort of love seems to belong to years and years 
ago. I'm different now." 

“ Does your mother know ? " he asked. “ She is out 


294 A WIPE OUT OP EGYPT 

this morning — has she returned ? Have you told her 
this ? 

“ She doesn^t know that my feelings for Vernon have 
changed. ... I didn't want any one to know. . . . But now 
that this has happened ! " she shuddered. 

“ Are Vernon's feelings the same for you ? " Nicolas 
Lekejian groaned. . . . “ How did he take this horrible 
news ? " 

Stella felt by the manner in which her father spoke 
that he did not know that her cousin had heard of Vernon's 
plans for travelling in the British Agent's suite. A great 
wave of hope and longing came to her that he might 
never know. If only by some miracle it could be kept 
from him, one drop of misery would be spared her, and the 
bitterest shame removed from the memory of his nephew's 
name in her father's eyes. She answered him evasively. 
‘‘ Men's affections are so difficult to understand, father, 
all except yours." She caressed his cheeks with her soft 
1ms. ‘‘I suppose he cared for me just as much as 
ever until he heard of this, and until I resented the things 
he said about my people — then I spoke hatefully to him. 
Sometimes I used to wonder if he wouldn't have been 
glad to be free ; I think he would if he had felt quite 
certain that I shouldn't have married any one else.'^ 

Nicolas Lekejian smiled : he was too wise a father to 
question his daughter upon such a subtle point as her own 
reason for no longer loving Vernon. He knew that it is 
only the things that don't matter, the things which do 
not affect our finest senses which can be explained ; that 
the birth of passion and the death of it are as little under- 
stood by mortals as the death of our material bodies. 

Just at that moment three telegrams were brought into 
the room by Mr. Lekejian's confidential clerk, who laid 
them gravely in front of his master. There was a note 
on the top of the telegrams, which were on an ancient 
Arab tray. This requires an immediate answer, sir," 
the man said in Arabic. ‘‘ The hospital porter is waiting." 
He pointed to the note, and with a respectful salaam w ith- 
drew to the outer office. 

The note was from the doctor of the city hospital, a 
very able man, whom Mr. Lekejian knew intimately and 
liked as a friend. 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 295 


It ran : 

If you wish to see your nephew Girgis Boutros alive, 
please come at once — the worst is feared/' 

‘‘ Yours with sympathy, 

‘‘ K. B/' 

Nicolas Lekejian instantly rose from his seat, pushing 
Stella gently from him. “ Find your mother, child, and 
stay with her." He kissed her tenderly as he pressed an 
electric bell at his feet. The turbaned servant was at 
his master's side again in answer to the summons. 

‘‘ Tell the man who brought this that I wiU follow him ; 
give Mr. Nicolas these telegrams when he comes in and 
ask him from me to answer them, and lock up my desk." 
The next moment he had left his office and was out in the 
courtyard. 

Nancy, who was still seated below the lebbek tree when 
he passed it, rose to her feet instantly and flew to him. 
‘‘ Won't you tell me what has happened, Mr. Lekejian ? 
Every one seems steeped in gloom ? Can I help you ? " 

“ Little girl," he said, ‘‘ something very dreadful has 
happened, something you must try to forgive, for Girgis 
Boutros is dying." 

‘‘ R.G. dying ! Oh, Mr. Lekejian, it can't be true ! " 
But the girl's words fell upon the silent courtyard, for Mr. 
Lekejian had passed into the outer court, where the porter 
at his coming sprang from his old stone bench near the 
door and, at his master's silent order, which was given by 
the merest sign, darted up the street to And a cab. In 
less than four minutes he had returned with one and was 
respectfully helping him into it, while with the exquisite 
courtesy of his language he uttered the familiar blessings 
on the out-going of the master of the household. 

When Nicolas Lekejian entered the hospital he was at 
once taken up to the ward in which his nephew was lying. 
As the nurse who accompanied him opened its door, the 
doctor hurried down the length of the room to meet him : 
he felt a sincere sympathy for the man who had given so 
much of his time and brains for the service of British rule 
in Egypt, and who had got so little from the British in 
return, and who was now, by this dastardly attempt of 


296 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


his nephew, placed in a position of humiliation ; but he 
was quite unprepared for the change that the shock had 
produced in the man. The Syrian, the only one of 
his race whom the doctor had ever really respected or 
greatly admired, was now an old man ! In the East there 
is a very short time granted between the years of middle 
age and infirmity. With Nicolas Lekejian there had been 
none. These few hours, since the papers had published 
the brief notice of his nephew's attempted crime, had 
eaten them up. The doctor shook him by the hand 
silently and sympathetically as he walked with him to the 
patient's bedside, a sign from the nurse beckoning them 
to come more quickly. 

They hurried their steps, but the angel of death went 
before them ; and ere they reached the narrow bed, where 
since daybreak the life-blood had been flowing from the 
lungs of the young patriot, it had stopped and gathered 
in its arms the soul of Girgis Boutros and borne it to that 
valley of expiation, wheresoever it may be, which must 
be traversed before the erring are granted peace. 

Wlien Nicolas Lekejian stood by his nephew's dead body 
he said : “ And the goat shall bear upon him all their 
iniquities into a land not inhabited." 


CHAPTER XXVII 


When Nicolas Lekejian returned from the hospital to his 
home, Stella and her brother found it -z^Tinecessary to deceive 
him about Girgis's knowledge that Vernon was to be in 
the train which he had planned to wreck, for the doctor 
had given him the full details of the capture of the con- 
spirators by the police, and of Girgis's death at the hand 
of his own confederates. The news lifted the burden of 
shame from their hearts, and in their thoughts of him 
lessened the awful horror of his meditated crime. SteUa 
underwent a revolution of feeling, and hated herself for 
ever having believed the accusation against him. Her 
old belief in his loyalty to herself and his gratitude to 
Vernon for having saved her father was re-established. 
His youthful and unpractical ideas regarding politics she 
understood from his point of view, bitterly as she, from 
her own standpoint, condemned them ; but the knowledge 
that he was no murderer allowed her to think of him as 
a political conspirator who had met his death nobly and 
fearlessly instead of as a contemptible murderer. 

His sudden death came as an overwhelming shock to 
the entire household ; but in the East, where the true mean- 
ing of the words ‘‘ In the midst of life we are in death is 
brought daily home to every one with amazing realism, it 
seemed more unredl to Nancy than to any of the others. 
She could not believe it : she could not realize that any one 
so alive with the virility of manhood should have suddenly 
become non-existent ; it was incredible. 

Nicolas had found her in his mother's morning-room, 
whither she had flown upon hearing from Mr. Lekejian that 
Girgis Boutros was dying. Mrs. Lekejian had not yet 
returned. 

The girl's stricken face had torn Nicolas's heart and 
made him yearn for her all the more deeply : the cheeks of 

297 


298 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


his pink hedge-rose were as pale as snowdrops. When 
he saw that his mother was not in her room he turned to 
go — he could not trust himself alone with the pitiful figure ; 
but as he was about to leave without speaking to her, 
Nancy cried to him : “ Nicolas, what have I done ? Girgis 
is dying, your father says. What has happened ? Why 
can't I know ? " 

“ Dying ! " Nicolas started. The suddenness of the 
news astounded him, but he felt no pity for the miserable 
youth. 

“It is the only thing he could do," he said bitterly. 
He imagined, of course, that his cousin had committed 
suicide. “ He has disgraced himself and brought shame 
on our household." He put the girl determinedly from him 
as she rose to her feet and impulsively held out her hands 
to detain him. “ Don't touch me," he said : “ this house 
is no fit home for you . . . you don't understand . . . 
Girgis was conspiring to murder your brother ! " 

Nancy staggered back : his words stunned her, she could 
scarcely gasp out the question, “ Vernon ? Is he safe ? 
Where is he ? " as she stared at him with terror in her 
eyes. Nicolas could have killed himself for having so cruelly 
hurt her, for the girl's words had come labouringly. 

“ Vernon is perfectly safe — ^he was here this morning : 
the conspirators were caught before the deed was attempted. 
. . . My cousin . . ." Nicolas emphasized the relation- 
ship with a bitter purpose, “ was arrested last night along 
with the three other dastardly villains who were plotting 
to kill the Khedive, the Prime Minister, and Lord Minton. 
Girgis was to have wrecked the train which conveyed Lord 
Minton to Alexandria." 

Nancy's hands went up before her eyes — the horror of 
the idea was too near — but Nicolas's abrupt movement 
to leave her made her drop them and cry out sharply : 
“ You mustn't go ; stay with me " — she caught him angrily 
by the arm — “ stay with me, I tell you ! I can't bear to 
be alone : it is cruel of you to go." 

Nicolas stayed by her side and forced himself to speak 
calmly. “ I will do anything I can for you, little Nancy," 
he said, “ anything in the wide world that will help you. 
I was a brute to tell you so abruptly, but I was mad — mad 
with anger ; and I thought the sight of any one of us would 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 299 

naturally be loathsome to you. ... I was afraid to come 
near you.'" 

Nancy smiled through her tears, tears which had begun 
to flow through the sudden shock to her nerves. “ Wlien 
you all shunned me I felt lost, and a stranger amongst 
you for the first time. And I thought you cared a little 
for me. . . She shivered. “ Oh, this land is terrible ! '' 

‘‘ You are lost to us, Nancy," he said ; Girgis has cut 
all our ties . . . you must forget this horrible country 
and go home." 

‘‘ What do you mean ? Girgis must have gone mad ; 
he was not accountable for his deeds. Love sends some 
natures mad, when it is hopeless. Vernon will understand 
. . . now that the poor boy is dying. Oh, poor, poor 
R.G. ! . . ." she paused . . . '‘ affection makes life dam- 
nable ! " Nancy looked at Nicolas for an answer. 

‘‘ His form of madness is damnable," he said bitterly ; 
“ it has broken the engagement between your brother and 
Stella: Vernon could not marry into our family after that." 

“ Oh, Nicolas ! Who said so ? ... he could ... he 
could if he loved her even as poor Girgis loved her . . . but 
Vernon does not know how to love . . ." 

Nancy’s trembling ceased ; she was suddenly transformed 
into the combative, daring girl whose love for her school- 
friend never wavered, and to whom the evidence of her 
brother’s self-satisfied character was constantly asserting 
itself unpleasantly. ‘‘ What proof is there," she said, 
‘‘ that Girgis wished to murder my brother ? . . . I can 
understand and believe that he would do anything, however 
awful, for political reasons, for I have always considered 
him quite unbalanced on that subject ; but I refuse to 
believe — and I think you ought to as well, Nicolas — that he 
would stoop to murder any one for purely personal motives, 
or that he would knowingly have killed the man who saved 
his uncle’s life. Girgis adores your father. Do you know," 
she said encouragingly, “ he once told me that he con- 
sidered that the giving of Stella to my brother (whom 
of course, as an English soldier, he disliked) in a way helped 
to repay the debt his family owed Vernon for having saved 
your father ? I believe that Girgis would have saved 
Vernon’s life instead of taken it, if it had only been to earn 
Stella’s gratitude ! That is not the sort of stuff criminals 


300 A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 

are made of — criminals who stoop to murder for personal 
motives ? 

Nicolas's eyes were aflame with gratitude for the girl's 
words, but he made no response. 

“You must prove to me that R.G. knew that Vernon 
was to be in that train before I allow myself to think 
the worst of him : what we know is bad enough, but it 
is outside of that line of villainy." 

Nicolas was on the point of tellmg her the horrible truth 
about his cousin, for he wished to spare his family nothing 
in her eyes, when his father hurriedly entered the room. 
Nancy flew to him and flung her arms round him : the 
w^eight of years and sorrow that had suddenly been added 
to his life almost made her cry out. 

“ Where is your mother, Nicolas ? " he said as he looked 
eagerly round the room. He had accepted the girl's proof 
of affection gladly and was tenderly caressing her hands 
w^hile he spoke. When he saw that his beloved wife w^as 
not there he said in a tired, hollow voice : “I have just 
returned from the hospital. Things are best as they are ! 
Girgis is dead ! " 

The two listeners did not speak. 

“ I was too late to hear any confession he might have 
wished to make. A bullet from a revolver, fired at him by 
one of his own party, entered his lungs ... he bled to death." 

“ Why did they shoot him ? " It was Nancy who spoke, 
very quietly and fearfully. 

“ Because they thought Girgis had betrayed them. They 
were all arrested only a few moments after he had arrived 
at a little cafe in the suburbs, where he had gone to tell 
his companions that he had revoked, that he could not 
carry out the horrible crime he had vow^ed to commit. . . ." 
Mr. Lekejian pressed the girl's hand closely in his own 
and looked into her eyes as he said the last words. “ He 
had heard in the morning that your brother was to be in 
Lord Minton's party. . . . He met his compatriots in 
that cafe last night to deliver himself up into their hands. 
He knew he would be tortured to death ! " 

There was silence for a moment, then the old man 
repeated the familiar Coptic prayer which begins with 
the words, “ Oh, my Lord, have mercy ! Oh, my Lord, 
have mercy ! " 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 301 

A groan of relief and gratitude came from Nicolas's 
lips as his eyes sought Nancy's. 

‘‘ Thank God he died ! " she said. “ Poor wrong-headed 
Rameses the Great ! " 

‘‘ God is merciful," Mr. Lekejian said. ‘‘ His mercy is 
farther-reaching than we understand. He will judge the 
boy justly." 

‘'But he is so young to die," Nancy said, ‘'and so beauti- 
ful . . ." she paused a moment, as though she was visualizing 
the figure of the exquisite youth lying white and still 
in death ..." I'm so glad, so awfully glad that he met 
his end like that . . . that he refused to commit the 
crime. It was just as if God had sent him reason at the 
very last. . . . Does my brother know ? " 

“ No, my child, I think not." Mr. Lekejian hesitated, 
and looked at Nicolas. 

“ Nancy knows — I have told her, father." 

“ Yes, I know," she said hurriedly, “ but when, oh, 
when Vernon understands that Girgis practically lost his 
life because he would not be a party to murdering him, 
that he refused to carry out the awful vows he had under- 
taken in a fit of madness, they will be the same as they were 
before . . . Vernon will . . . will . . ." 

Mr. Lekejian turned to leave her. He could not tell 
her that his child had ceased to love her brother. “ If 
it had been you who was going to be my dear daughter 
instead of Vernon my son, things might have been the 
same, but alas ! that is not the case." 

The next moment he had closed the door behind him, 
and Nancy and Nicolas were left looking foolishly at one 
another. 

A crimson blush dyed Nancy's soft face from her throat 
to her forehead ! 

Instantaneously with Mr. Lekejian's words there rang 
through her ears her own words to Stella that night at 
A1 Fayyum ! “ If I fall in love with Nicolas I shall 

have to propose to him . . ." The idea possessed her. 
Why should she not, by one moment of awful daring, in 
this awful hour of anguish, when his suffering robbed her 
of all false pride, offer herself to him as his wife ? She 
knew that he loved her and that he would never, unless 
she tempted him beyond measure, tell her of that love. 


302 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


She was willing to risk the humiliation of rejection in the 
hope that her offer would be received with joy. 

“ Nicolas ! '' He turned to her : the beautiful blush had 
not left her face, and the tone of her voice told him more 
of her tale than she was aware. She held out her hand : 
he knew that she was offering it to him as his wife, but 
he did not move. He had only to stretch out his arms and 
she was his ; instead he stood with bowed head and firmly 
clenched fingers. 

Nancy went to him and placed her hand very shyly on 
his. “ Won't you take me, Nicolas ? Don't you want 
me ? " The next moment her hand was imprisoned in his 
passionate grasp. 

“ Oh, my darling ! God knows how much I want you, but 
we're not fit for you, Nancy . . ." his words came brokenly 
. . . this is only pity you feel, it can't be anything else." 

‘‘ I have always tempted you, Nicolas, because I have 
always loved you . . . you can't refuse me, dearest, after my 
having summoned up courage to ask you. ..." She looked 
at him with lovely, taunting eyes. 

‘‘ Little Nancy," he said wearily, as though bodily ex- 
haustion had overcome him . . . don't tempt me to 
behave like a villain — ^help me to resist ! " 

For a moment the man's abject humility brought tears 
to her eyes, but there was still a playful lightness in her 
voice when she said : ‘‘I once told Stella that if I fell in 
love with you I should have to propose if I wanted to marry 
you ; now I must tell her that I have proposed and have 
been refused, that you are shocked at my want of maidenly 
modesty." 

“ Nancy," he said hoarsely, ‘‘ you know I love you ! 
You have known it all the time ! You knew you were asking 
me to accept the one thing that could make life sweet — you 
knew it, or you would not have done it ! I will always 
worship and adore you, more than ever now for having 
done this thing — though God knows you have tempted 
me almost more than I can bear." 

‘‘ Then don't bear it," she held out her hand, ‘‘ give in 
and make me your wife." 

“ I can't allow you to ruin your life." 

“ Why ruin it, Nicolas, when I'd rather belong to you 
than any one else in the world ? " 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


303 


“ Little girl "" — he looked at her with exquisite tenderness 
shining in his eyes — “ little English Nancy, you are only a 
child in years ; you will go home to England and marry a 
man of your own people . . . you don't understand all that 
I should be doing if I accepted what you offer to do, you 
can't understand . . . you don't know what you would have 
to give up, what you would be subjected to." He shook her 
almost roughly out of his way as his mind recalled all the 
slights his mother and sister had endured. ‘‘ Let me go, for 
pity's sake, Nancy. Don't tempt me any longer." 

First tell me, Nicolas, why it would have been all 
right for Stella to marry Vernon ? " 

“ Because he would have taken her home to England, she 
would have borne his name, her race would have been 
swallowed up in his . . ." he spoke bitterly . . . you can't 
blame him." 

‘‘ I see," Nancy said slowly ; ‘‘ Stella would have been 
changed into an Englishwoman by marrying my brother, 
while I, an Englishwoman, should have been changed into 
a Syrian by marrying Nicolas Lekejian junior, and I should 
have lived in Cairo ? " 

Exactly, for while my father lives I will never leave 
him ; I am not much of a business man, but just of late he 
has learnt to rely upon me in the matter of correspon- 
dence . . ." he looked at her hungrily, for love was making 
its demands . . . ‘‘ I mustn't let you do it." 

The girl was thoughtful for a moment. ‘‘ Your mother 
has been happy, Nicolas ? " 

“ You mean she has never allowed us to see her suffering, 
she has given up her life to her husband and her children." 

Nancy answered him with the pleading that was in her 
smile. 

My darling," he said, if I loved you less than I do, 
if I did not treasure you as something far too pure and 
unspotted to sully with the life out here, I would forget 
your happiness and think only of my own." He put his arms 
round her. I want to hold you just once, Nancy, as if 
you belonged to me, may I ? " 

Nancy yielded her pliant body to his embrace, their 
cheeks were pressed together. Nicolas dared not trust him- 
self to seek her lips : the sweetness of her breath was on his 
neck, the fragrance of her being was enflaming his senses. 


304 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


In that sublime draught of love all sorrow and suffering 
was forgotten, the ecstasy of the moment obliterated the 
memory of renunciations. 

Then Nicolas, while the best in him still triumphed, un- 
clasped her fingers from his neck and held her from him 
at arm’s length. God bless you, little hedge-rose,” he 
said ; your sweetness and dearness are not for me, but 
after this I can fight, I can be strong.” 

He crushed her hands tightly in his. 

‘‘ Good-bye,” Nancy said softly, but as her words were 
spoken she thrust her pleading face quickly forward and 
pressed her lips against her lover’s. 

One heavenly kiss from her young lips was to be his 
ere they parted. 

When she raised her head, she whispered : My husband ! 
For in my thoughts and in my heart you will be my hus- 
band, Nicolas, and I am your wife.” She smiled divinely. 
“ So remember if you marry again you will be committing 
bigamy.” 

Good-bye, little wife,” he said, ‘‘ and God guard you.” 

The next moment Nancy had left the room, and Nicolas 
was alone, enjoying over again the brief ecstasy of their 
first embrace. 


CHAPTER XXVIII 


Nancy fled straight to Stella's room. She found her there 
standing by the window, looking out into the palm-garden 
with unseeing eyes ; she did not move or appear to notice 
Nancy's entrance until the girl's arm was slipped through 
hers, then she turned questioning eyes on her to see if the 
girl knew of Girgis's death. 

Nancy understood the meaning of her look. ‘‘ Yes, I 
know, darling ! " There was silence again, for mere words 
at such a moment seemed a mockery, a pitiful mockery 
of the inexpressible sorrow she felt for her friend. Tears 
instantly fllled Stella's eyes — Nancy's sympathy had brought 
them, and they were a welcome sight to Nancy, for the 
girl's motionless calm was harder to bear. Vernon's name 
Nancy could not mention : he seemed to her at the moment 
despicable and inhuman ; her passionate young being longed 
to transform itself into a man and a lover, so that she might 
fold the girl in strong arms and show her how she would 
love if she were a man. To know that this girl, whose 
loveliness never grew stale in Nancy's eyes, had been thro^vn 
over by her brother in this hour of trial and suffering, fllled 
her with wrathful indignation. Words burst from her 
lips as a protest against his behaviour ; as a token that 
she, his sister, considered the house of Lekejian an honour- 
able one to be allied to. 

“ SteUa," she said, ‘‘ I have proposed to Nicolas, and he 
has refused me." She could not have said it if she had 
not been certain of Nicolas's love ; the knowledge of it was 
in her heart like a song. 

Nancy ! " Stella's voice betrayed reproach rather than 
sympathy — reproach that her friend should have dared 
to offer such consolation to her brother in their dire humilia- 
tion : it seemed to her a form of patronage which was not in 
good taste. 

20 


305 


306 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


“Yes, I told you at the Fay yum that I should be driven 
into doing it . . . and I was/" 

“ In what way ? "" 

“ Because I love him, and he made me understand that 
he would never ask me to be his wife, he told me that this 
deed of Girgis"s had placed a gulf between us for ever . . . 
he could not have said more plainly, ‘ I can"t marry you." "" 
“ And how could he ? "" 

“ He could do anything if he loved me . . . love can do 
anything ... it is faith ... it can move mountains ! "" 

“ He does love you — you know that ? "" 

“ Not in my way, or he"d marry me ; he"d have married 
me long ago."" 

“ His own way is nobler, Nancy ! "" 

“ Oh, fiddlesticks ! "" she said scornfully. “ I don"t want 
nobility, human devotion is good enough for me ! "" 

“ You ask for humility ? "" 

“ I don"t ! "" Nancy spoke emphatically, “ I want the 
happiness of becoming his wife. . . ."" She paused, and 
then added irritably, “For hypersensitive reasons he won"t 
grant me that happiness, he has refused me ; yet I would 
rather be his mistress than any other man"s wife — so why 
should he spoil my life ? "" 

“ Hush ! "" SteUa drew her hand away. “You don"t know 
anything about these things, Nancy ; I wonder if you really 
know what love is — it"s so deceptive . . ."" Stella sighed . . . 
“ so deceptive, Nancy, for many false gods will rise up 
and call themselves Love . . . Nicolas is unlike the men 
you have been accustomed to meeting, just as we are 
unlike the women Girgis knew, and, added to that, you 
are provoked because you can"t make him say that he 
loves you. If you knew more men like him ! "" 

Nancy interrupted her : “ He"s got brains and ideas, 
and he makes life interesting. When I"m with him I always 
think there are so many interesting things to do that the 
days could never be long enough . . . when I"m alone, and 
his ideas are forgotten, I don"t know how to pass my time."" 

“ Vernon was a new type to me when I met him . . ."" 
Stella went on as though lost in her own train of thoughts . . . 
“ travelling about the world as I did one didn"t meet that 
sort of man very much, and at school we hadn"t the chance 
... I thought him very unusual ! "" 

Nancy looked at her : a slow awakening to the true 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 307 

understanding of things was coming into her eyes and 
changing her expression. 

‘‘ I can't describe my feelings for him then, I never 
stopped to think ; I took it for granted that I loved him . . 
she blushed . . . and I did adore him in a sort of way : his 
good looks and active manhood roused feelings in me that 
I mistook for love. It's really awfully difficult to know, 
Nancy, when you are quite young, and when a very good- 
looking man makes love to you." 

‘‘ Stella ! " Nancy's voice was filled with amazement. 
“You had ceased to love him before this happened ? " 

“ Yes, I asked him for my freedom ! " Stella's loyalty 
to the memory of the man whose love she had once so 
glorified in would not allow her to let even his sister know 
that she had freed Vernon for his own sake, freed him from 
a tie which she knew had become undesirable to him on 
account of her birth. 

“ And Vernon ? " A tone of sisterly loyalty to her brother 
was evident in Nancy's voice : it betokened a touch of 
resentment. 

“ I have not broken his heart, the wounds wiU mend ; we 
are not really suited to one another ; we fell in love with 
each other's physical attractions, I suppose, and intimacy 
has proved that in characteristics we are unmateable." 

“ Did you love any one else, Stella ? Was it poor Girgis ? 

I think it is only loving some one else that can show a 
woman that sort of thing ? " 

A cry of horror told Nancy how mistaken her idea had 
been. At the same moment Stella's hands flew up to her 
face to hide the crimson blush of shame which her question 
had called up. Did she love some one else ? It was weeks 
now since she had allowed her senses or mind to dwell on 
the image of Michael Ireton : she had imagined she had 
driven him out of the citadel of her heart. She had fought 
the fight over and over again, until the repeated attacks 
of his strong personality at unguarded moments had almost 
ceased. 

“ I'm so sorry, dear ; I didn't mean it." Nancy's words 
were full of humility. “ W^ill you forgive me ? It was horrid 
of me ! " 

“ Poor Girgis ! . . ." Stella raised her eyes to Nancy's as 
she spoke ; the horror of his death and of how he had met 
it swept suddenly over her again with renewed violence. 


308 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


He was so young to die, Nancy, and so full of life ; and 
with all his wealth and perfect health, life should have been 
so sweet — he seemed to have everything a young man could 
want/" 

‘‘ Except your love ! "" 

“ I know. It is easy to know now, but I never dreamt 
how much he wanted me really ... I thought he was only 
a boy ... it is so difficult to believe that men can really feel 
any lasting depth of love for a woman when it begins so 
suddenly. Girgis would have asked my father for my hand 
the first night he met me if he had not known that I was 
engaged to Vernon. I have always heard and read that 
with all Eastern and Oriental races real love comes at first 
sight : it was certainly so with Girgis."" 

“ We"re too English to understand that sort of thing, but 
so much is real and so much is true that we don"t under- 
stand."" 

“ I"m not English ; I ought to understand, I suppose."" 

“You are English : your mother is, and your bringing- 
up has been English ; you"re accustomed to the reserve of 
English people — Girgis"s flowery expressions didn"t mean 
anything to you . . . poor Girgis ! we only laughed at them 
. . . I"m sure Vernon never said anything more poetic than 
‘ I"m beastly fond of you, old girl, and you know it," and 
yet you believed in him implicitly."" 

Stella smiled, for the remark was certainly reminiscent 
of Vernon"s attempt at expressing his feelings for her. 
With a tender smile still on her lips, she quoted the verse 
of a song Girgis used to murmur to her in tones of passion. 
She tried to sing it in the quavering, characteristic native 
fashion : 

“ Thou hast made me ill, O my beloved ! 

And my desire is for nothing but thy medicine. 

Perhaps, full moon ! thou wilt have mercy upon me. 

For verily my heart loveth thee. 

O thou in the rose-coloured dress ! O thou in the rose-coloured 
dress. 

Beloved of my heart ! remain with me.” 

“ It"s SO dreadful to think, Nancy, that I am responsible 
not only for his death but for the horrible deed he was 
meditating committing. He promised to work for Egypt 
to please me : I meant him to work in the w^ay he always 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


309 


has, educating the farmers, giving money for new schools^ . 
and by setting the good example he has always done 
to other wealthy Egyptian youths of not gambling, and 
of leading a clean, healthy, open-air, active life. And 
now he has done this mad act ! Allowed himself to trust 
these horrible Socialists, who are the true enemies of his 
country — not one of them was fit to shake hands with him ! 
And then to shoot him as though he were a dog ! Of 
course they came to the conclusion that he had betrayed 
them because he was a Christian — that's typical of all 
Moslems, their distrust of Christians ! " 

But he couldn't have thought it would 'please you, 
SteUa — he knows your views ? " 

“ He wished to appear a hero in my eyes, as Vernon did : 
he knew he must die if he accomplished the deed, for the 
conspirators who have done these things have always met 
with death, and, be it to their credit, they have never feared 
death ; but he had not the courage to live if he could not 
have me for his wife." 

Poor Girgis ! How foolish ! " 

“ He asked me if I would love him as a hero if he did 
some great work for his country." 

‘‘ And such work ! How wrong-headed ! He had quite 
a kink on the subject." 

I said I would, and then he said (I remember his very 
words now) . . . ‘ Remember, it will be work done in my 
own way, but it will be work done for Egypt and for 
your sake.' And now he's dead, and to-night he will 
be buried, and to-morrow the world will know him no 
more ! And all this is because I am alive — I, who am 
utterly worthless ! I must go on living and hating myself 
every hour of the day." Stella flung herself down on the 
low couch by the window and wept. . . . “ Of what earthly 
use am I ? Why take this good life and save a drone — 
a woman like myself ? " 

Nancy stood by her, not knowing what to say. 

Stella turned round and faced her suddenly. Isn't it 
horrible to be me, Nancy ? If I could have loved Girgis, 
this thing need never have been — if I'd never been brought 
up to believe I was like Western women ! " 

“ It would have made no difference, Stella : if you had 
married him, Girgis would have gone his own way, in 


310 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


spite of his adoration for you ; I feel it, and I know it. In 
politics you could never have influenced him, he'd have 
come to this sooner or later : he was a born revolutionist." 

The truth of her remark made Stella's face less tragic. 

“ R.G. w^as the incarnation of an ancient Egyptian : he 
could only rule by drastic measures, even though his 
rule was just and honourable. He had ceased to hope 
for any further good coming out of British rule in Egypt, 
so he wanted to cut off the heads and hands of the rulers 
and hang them on the prow of his boat — ^wrecking the 
train was the modern equivalent for that sort of thing. 
You must remember that death meant absolutely nothing 
in his eyes ; life was sweet when its desires were procurable, 
but death did not matter — it was one of the things that 
happen : a man's fate is about his neck ! " 

He was my full cousin," Stella said woefully, ‘‘ and 
yet I know that all these things you say are true, though 
it seems incredible that any one so closely allied to me 
could see things in that light. . . ." 

‘‘ But will he be buried to-night, Stella ? How awful ! 
How sudden ! " 

‘‘ Probably, after sun-down : in this weather there is no 
time between death and burial. That is why we come 
to look upon death more lightly, the whole thing is over 
so quickly." 

Nancy shuddered. “ It's awful, isn't it ? There's 
something so pitiless about Egypt. It gets down so 
remorselessly to the bed-rock of cruelty and of passions. 
In England we have forgotten elemental things." 

“ You must leave it, Nancy, and forget its mixture 
of races, its mixture of creeds, its mixture of hates and 
morals. You don't understand the hundredth part of 
its race-hatreds : how all the different sects of Christians 
loathe and detest each other, how all races loathe and 
despise the Jews, how the Jews in their turn loathe and 
detest the Moslems, how the English Christians despise 
and scorn the Eastern Christians, and how the Copts 
detest the Greeks." 

Stella had not flnished her list of hates before a knock 
came to her door and a servant entered and said, with a 
profound salaam, ‘‘ The lady of the house has returned ; 
she desires her daughter's presence in her room.'^ 


CHAPTER XXIX 


Two months later Miss MacNaughtan was once again waiting 
in her green and black drawing-room for the arrival of her 
favourite pupil, Stella Adair. She was seated in the same 
deep-bedded sofa as she had been when she had waited for 
her two years ago, she was again listening for the sudden 
stopping of a taxi-cab at her door. The sound she was 
expecting caught her ears, then the opening of the front 
door, then the tread of feet on the polished staircase and 
the murmur of voices. It was Stella speaking to the 
old man-servant. Then the door was opened and her 
darling flew across the room to her : the next moment the 
two women were locked in each other's arms ; not a word 
had been spoken; not an exclamation made. 

When the long embrace was over the elder woman 
drew the girl to the sofa; they sank into it together, 
still in silence. After she had sat motionless for a few 
moments, Stella let her eyes wander slowly round the 
room : her ardent gaze took in every familiar object and 
marked jealously each new feature of decoration, each 
new ornament. Impetuously she rose to her feet and 
stood for a moment in front of a large photograph of 
Watts's “ Love and Death." 

As a school-girl she had adored this exquisite picture. 
Miss MacNaughtan watched her with sympathetic eyes : 
she knew that her pupil had come into a woman's inherit- 
ance of suffering, and that suffering must be borne alone. 
She saw that the school-girl she had nurtured so carefully 
existed no longer ; she was glad that this creature of noble 
womanhood was there in her stead. Like a bird whose 
feathers have been bruised and bent with the buffeting 
of many winds, Stella flew back to her seat on the sofa. 
As she sank into it she buried her face in her hands. 

With a deep breath, which was a relieving sigh, the words 

311 


312 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


escaped her lips : “ Thank God ! "" She looked up as she 
spoke, and dropped her hands in her lap. 

“ For what, my darling ? '' 

For you. ... Thank God He has left you at least 
unchanged."" 

My poor child ! Young people come and go here, but 
things never really change. With you — things had to change, 
you were only in the making, you had to leave girlhood 
behind and take your place in the kingdom of womanhood."" 

“ A kingdom of suffering ? "" 

“Not altogether ; in womanhood the sweetness is so 
much sweeter if the pain goes deeper."" 

The girl suddenly changed her tone. “ Naughtie, I 
remember now all that you meant and knew when you 
came back from Egypt and wouldn"t explain. Do you 
remember how I asked you what you were keeping back ? "" 

“ I didn"t know nearly all, but I was afraid ! "" 

“ Wouldn"t it have been better to have told me, to have 
warned me ? "" 

“ It was hard to know. I thought not, dear. . . . What 
good could it have done ? "" 

Stella paused, and then said reflectively, “ I wonder ? "" 
Her wonder was whether, if Vernon had known, he would 
have gone to Cairo, or would have changed into some 
other regiment and made her marry him without waiting ? 
She knew that she would have done what he asked then, 
but even now, as she thought of it, the sigh she had given 
was one of relief — relief that things were even as they were 
rather than as they might have been ! Suddenly she said, 
“ You know that Nancy is in love with Nicolas ? "" 

“ Is he in love with her ? "" 

“ Oh, he adores her ! . . . We all adore her ; she"s such 
a brick! Dear, loyal little Nancy, she has never failed 
us."" 

“ When are they to be married ? "" 

Stella shook her head. “ Nicolas won"t give in."" 

“ What about ? "" 

“Haven"t you heard that the other three conspirators 
have got five years" penal servitude ? "" 

The swift flight of the girPs mind told Miss MacNaughtan 
why she had said, “ Nicolas won"t give in."’ 

“ Yes, I saw it in the papers a few days ago."" 


A WIPE OUT OP EGYPT 


313 


“ Girgis, my cousiii, might have been one of them/^ 
Stella's face quivered convulsively. 

But Girgis is not Nicolas. ... I think he is hyper- 
sensitive. . . . You know, dear, I would not pretend to 
approve of Nancy or of you marrying a man like your 
cousin Girgis ; he was brought up in Oriental customs, he 
was elemental in his passions, he was essentially Eastern : 
but your brother is to all intents and purposes a European, 
a highly -cultured man and a perfect gentleman ; besides, 
Syrians are not a dark race. It is not as though coloured 
blood was to be feared ..." she paused. “ Poor little 
Nancy ! So she, too, is passing through the fire ? " 

‘‘ Yes, the whole of a woman's life is pay, pay, pay," 
Stella said, and the ones who feel the most pay the most 
heavily. It's pathetic . . . ! " she paused, “ and yet 
the work I'm going to do will only add to the suffering 
of womankind ! " 

Miss MacNaughtan looked at her anxiously. “ What 
work is that, dear ? " 

I am going to teach the women of Egypt to be clean 
and to suffer ! " 

“ My dear ! " Miss MacNaughtan smiled. 

‘‘ I am. . . . It's quite true ! " 

‘‘ But how — in what way ? " 

“ I've at last gained father's consent. I'm going back 
to Egypt to lecture in the schools for women. I'm going 
to lecture on all sorts of domestic things. . . ." She turned 
sadly smiling eyes to her companion. ‘‘ I'm going to teach 
the humbler classes the virtue of cleanliness, not only of 
the body but of the mind, I hope, and I'm going to teach 
them how to work and be good housewives, instead of the 
idle, filthy creatures they are, living solely by animal 
instincts. . . . I'm gomg to show the upper classes the 
wisdom of educating their girls so as to be companions 
and not slaves to their husbands. . . ." She paused and 
sighed. . . . “ Oh ! and generally, Naughtie, inoculate them 
with the sufferings of a higher civilization. . . ." She 
paused. . . . ‘‘ I wonder if it's a case of the fox that had 
its tail cut off ? It seems woefully like it, doesn't it ? " 
‘‘You wouldn’t be different from what you are, would 
you ? You wouldn't change with, one of them ? " 

“ I'm going to do it, Naughtie ; the idea has been 


314 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


growing and growing. . . . My engagement to Vernon 
stopped it. . . . But now — now that I am free, it seems 
as though it had all been arranged so that I should do it. 
Nancy wants to help me ! 

“ But her people ? '' 

“ She inherits her mother's money at twenty-three ! 
She's quite free ; but I don't want her to. . . . Dissuade 
her if you can, only I'm afraid that if Nicolas doesn't 
marry her, she'll do something of that sort. . . . Egypt has 
unsettled her ; she's lost all taste for conventional English 
life. . . She paused. ‘‘ It was modern Egypt that 
fascinated her — she took very little interest in the ancient 
things. She's like Vernon in that, only he hated everything 
Egyptian." 

“ But you, dearest — what sort of a life is it for you ? " 
Miss MacNaughtan looked troubled. 

“ It's the only one I can see before me . . . and I always 
see it. I have seen it ever since I began to understand 
things that are below the surface in Egypt. ... I want to 
work for the poor who are totally unenlightened, but it's 
very difficult — they are so afraid of Christians trying to 
proselytize. There was a dreadful letter in one of the native 
papers the other day, hurling the most foul abuse, and 
insinuating, and attributing the lowest motives to a dear 
woman who was lecturing to a crowd of women, trying to 
teach them some of the first principles of hygiene, the 
keeping of their babies clean, the folly of charms for 
curing sore eyes, and all that sort of thing." 

‘‘ Reformers must suffer persecution ; it's splendid 
work." While they were discussing the subject, Clarkson 
brought in the tea and arranged it in front of his mistress. 

Stella's eyes took in at a glance the fact that her favourite 
sandwiches and cakes had not been forgotten. She laughed 
as she inspected the dishes. ‘‘ Dear Naughtie, I do believe 
I'm growing younger. The sight of these stuffed olives 
makes me feel that life still has its moments ! " 

I'm so glad, dear, but I want it to have its years. 
I've looked forward to this day for ages and ages, it seems 
to me ; letters are so unsatisfying, even though you told 
me all the essentials." 

“ And now things are so different, and yet the same. 
, V . When I look at you, Naughtie, I see light ahead ! I 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 315 

feel more confident of myself. I used to long to live a life 
like yours, and then love came she paused . . . 

‘‘ or I thought it did, and it drove out all my fine ideals ; 
but theyVe come back — they weren't dead, they were 
only drugged for a time. . . She shook herself as though 
to throw off even the memory of her servitude. ‘‘ I'm so 
glad I'm free from the chains of love. I'm glad I own 
myself again." 

Poor dear ! " 

“ I'm not speaking bitterly. My heart isn't broken . . . 
not even chipped. . . . It's all the other things in me that 
were hurt . . . and oh, so bruised ! . . . pride, belief, loyalty, 
justice — everything, in fact, except my heart; it was 
only . . ." 

‘‘ But you loved him ? " 

“ His good looks and love-making carried me off my 
feet, that must have been all. I suppose every woman 
finds a great charm in being loved ; perhaps she has to be 
loved many times before she herself knows what real 
love means." 

‘‘ Then things, after all, are for the best." 

‘‘ I suppose so. . . . But was it necessary to undergo all 
this ... to find it out ? And now Nancy has to carry 
about a hungry heart ! " 

‘‘ A little waiting won't do her any harm : it either 
strengthens affection or kills it." 

“ I don't think Nicolas will ever consent." Stella 
laughed at the memory of something that had suddenly 
fiashed across her thoughts. “ Do you know, Nancy 
actually proposed to him — at least she swears she did. I 
was too sad, at the time she told me, to laugh, but I've 
often done so since ! " 

‘‘ My dear, how like Nancy ! " 

It was on the day Girgis died, when everything was 
terrible. I had just broken off my engagement with 
Vernon. She was so sweet, Naughtie, I wonder that 
Nicolas could have been strong enough to resist her. 
Father worships her, and she plays with him like a 
kitten . . . and yet she's such a true woman. After 
Girgis's funeral, when father was ill, she nursed him — in 
that awful heat, too. She sat up watching him, with mother 
and me, night after night. She was wonderful. Nicolas 


316 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


and she used to meet during all that time just as friends ; 
she behaved like a brick to him. . . . We were coming home 
then, you know.'^ 

“ Yes, I expected you weeks ago.'" 

“ Father took ill quite suddenly." 

“ How is he now ? " 

Stella sighed. “ He's an old man, though he's not sixty 
yet — an old, old man. Girgis killed his last spark of 
youth. It was terrible — ^you can't think how terrible." 

‘‘ My poor darling, I'm sure it was." 

“ In the East most men are old at sixty, and yet once 
they get past that age many of them live on and on until 
they are any age. You don't know how old a thing can 
look, until you have lived in the East. The men who live 
frugal lives, and can't afford the luxuries which usually 
kill them, live to be as old as Methuselah." 

“ One of the blessings of poverty ! " 

“ Exactly ! Bread and coffee and smoke is all they 
can afford. The well-off classes get so gross and fat, they 
never live to see old age. Poor father — he has not grown 
fat, and although he could have indulged himself in every 
kind of luxury, he's lived such a temperate life. , . 
She paused. ‘‘ Father's religion has always meant a great 
deal to him ; he's lived up to it ; his has been a beautiful 
life." 

‘‘ He's been a true friend to England." 

“ That's where he is so big," Stella said eagerly. ‘‘You 
can't make him bitter towards the English, in spite of the 
treatment we have received at their hands. . . . He says 
these are petty things, that no race is without its faults, 
and that their shortcomings must be overlooked because 
of the wonderful work they have done for the country. 
He sees the difference ! . . . Poor Girgis was too young ! 
He came into a generation grown used to the benefits 
conferred on his country by the British, a generation 
eager to find fault and revolt against the smallest griev- 
ances. You don't find many of the old men in Egypt 
amongst the Socialist party ! " 

At that moment the telephone -bell sounded, and Miss 
MacNaughtan rose to answer it. In a few moments she 
called out, “ Stella, can you come with me to-night to a 
lecture at the Royal Geographical Society ? I have had 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


317 


two tickets offered to me. Penrose, the explorer, is going 
to lecture on his journey across Central America and down 
the Amazon."' 

Stella nodded. ‘‘ I'd love to, but if I do I must go 
home at once." She rose from her seat. “ Where shall 
we meet ? " 

Miss MacNaughtan hung up the receiver. “ Come for 
me here, dear; it's not much out of your way, and we 
can drive together in a taxi." 

The girl looked at the clock. ‘‘ It's half-past five now. 

I must be back again at what time ? " 

Seven -thirty, if we want good seats. It's sure to be 
crowded." 

They walked together to the top of the stairs. 

Stella looked up with happy eyes as she ran down them. 
“ It's like old times, Naughtie, going to lectures together ! " 

Her old mistress smiled a loving answer. ‘‘ Good-bye, 
dear. Do you want a taxi ? " 

Clarkson was ready to open the door and blow his 
whistle. While Stella waited for the taxi he said : “ H'it's 
been a rare treat to see you h'again, miss. There's never 
been h'any one like you in this 'ouse, h'ever since you went 
away." 

‘‘ Oh, Clarkie, I'm so glad ! I'm so awfully glad 
nothing ever changes here . . ." she sighed. ‘‘ I'm all 
changed, only you can't see it ; only the shell of me is the 
same." 

‘‘ H'i'm too h’old to change, missie ; there's only one 
kind h'of change left for me, now, but h'it seems as h'if H'i 
wasn't going to meet it quite so soon, 'aving seen you." 

As Stella drove up the long, familiar road in the swiftly- 
moving taxi she felt happier and more at rest than she had 
done for many months. Life was readjusting itself, and 
it was not going to be without its interests, its ideals, 
and even its beauty ! 

Everything around her at the moment was so typical 
of London : the grey, soft atmosphere with its veiled effects, 
the continuous kaleidoscope of the motor- traffic, which 
had grown to an appalling immensity since her departure, 
the smartness of the men emerging from their clubs and 
barracks, the luxury of the women seated in magnificent 


318 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


motors, and the beauty of the little children who had not 
yet lost their angel-faces. It was all so essentially London 
in sound and colour that she felt as though this was the 
only life she had ever known, that this was the world 
she belonged to. Cairo, with its mixture of slow-moving 
camels, its white donkeys and dark-eyed boys, its closed 
carriages with veiled women, its French cafes, its Levantine 
idlers, its self-satisfied English soldiers, was a thing so 
far away from her now that it was scarcely real. 

Suddenly her heart gave a bound and the vivid blush 
of youth dyed her pale skin, for while passing at lightning 
speed some West End club, whose name she did not know, 
she saw the figure of Michael Ireton coming down its 
front steps. The next second he was lost in the great 
ocean of London humanity, lost as hopelessly as though 
she had only seen him in a dream. 

But that one fiash of his living presence not a hundred 
yards away from her instantly brought back to her her 
life in Cairo. It was now the real thing ; London was 
the unreal ! For the rest of her ride she noted nothing 
of the almost supernatural movement of the traffic, with 
its continuous roar, which only a few moments before had 
so fascinated her, or of the familiar points in the landscape 
of streets and squares which had brought back vivid 
memories of her school-girl life. She was in Cairo, 
visualizing with beating pulses and a breathless state of 
being — a being which bore no resemblance to that of the 
quiet woman of a few moments ago, the woman who had 
hugged to herself the belief that she had passed into the 
calmer waters of life, the woman who imagined that she 
was freed from the chains of love — her last meetmg with 
Michael Ireton. The taxi stopped at her door, while in 
her mental condition she was still standing in the corridor 
of the Arab theatre, with Michael Ireton's big figure 
towering over her. His last words were in her ears, and 
her pleading cry of “ Oh, don't go, please don't go ! " 
filling her world of sound. 

She paid the man mechanically, almost allowing him 
to take what coins he chose from her hand ; then she 
paused for a moment before opening the door. She 
must control her nerves. A sense of hopelessness filled her 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


319 


at the thought that one passing glance of this man, whom 
she had never acknowledged to herself that she loved, 
should have so upset her. Her belief in herself was sud- 
denly blown to the winds. With a strengthening of her 
will-power which was helped by anger, she put her key 
into the lock and let herself into the hall. 

Not five minutes later she was speaking in quite natural 
tones to her mother, and telling her of her promise to 
go to the Geographical Society's lecture with Miss Mac- 
Naughtan. 


CHAPTER XXX 


The auditorium of the Royal Geographical Society was 
almost full when Miss MacNaughtan and Stella entered 
it. With some little difficulty they found two seats in 
one of the upper rows of the closely -packed building. 
They had scarcely settled themselves before the lecturer 
stepped forward and took his place at a desk on a slightly- 
raised dais in front of the screen on which the illustrations 
of his subject were to be projected by magic-lantern slides. 

The subject of the lecture was extremely interesting, 
and the illustrations were delightful, but, like many other 
explorers, the speaker had not the feeblest idea of how 
to make his subject humanly interesting. He gave the 
merest bare-bones of accurate information on incidents 
which might have been illustrated with vivid touches 
and magnetic sympathy. 

He had, in common with many travellers, the feverish 
desire to map out new lands ; what was characteristic 
or beautiful in these untravelled regions had not apparently 
‘caught his eye or interested him. 

With two years^ accumulated incidents and information, 
all of which must have been of unusual interest, he had 
contrived, through the trammels of conventional English 
learning, to remain a totally uninteresting personality. 

Stella^s thoughts strayed from his dull statistics, which 
conveyed absolutely nothing to the majority of his listeners, 
to the events of the afternoon, while her eyes wandered 
round the gathering of oddly-assorted people. From 
where she sat it was almost impossible to see the occupants 
of the lowest row of seats in the auditorium — the bench 
always reserved for The Fellows of the Society and 
their specially invited guests. 

Miss MacNaughtan was congratulating herself upon the 
fact that scarcely any one of her elder pupils would have 

320 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


321 


made such a poor attempt at interesting their audience, 
if she had been given the skeleton of the explorer's speech 
to elaborate into a lecture. Few women could have 
spoken in a manner so totally devoid of magnetism. 

When at last the lecture was over, the majority of the 
audience left the building and went home or hurried 
on to finish their evening at some other place of enter- 
tainment : it was the minority who found their way to 
the reception-rooms at the back of the auditorium, where 
interesting relics of the Society are shown, and the members 
meet to discuss the lecture and talk to their friends. 
The great man did not succeed in leaving the auditorium 
before he was surrounded by admiring friends who had 
been seated near enough to him during the lecture to 
capture him the moment his speech was over. 

Presently there was a little excitement in the reception- 
room, for he had at last got away, and was entering it. 
He was followed by the well-known guests and Fellows 
who had been seated in the places of honour. 

Stella was not talking to any one when they entered — 
indeed, she scarcely knew any one to talk to — but was 
examining the contents of a glass case at the far end of 
the room, and Miss MacNaughtan was surrounded by a 
number of friends who were regular attendants at the 
lectures given by the Society. 

Stella had not watched the entry of the distinguished 
members, she had just lifted her head for one moment 
to satisfy herself as to the cause of the flutter amongst 
the audience. Suddenly she became aware of a new force 
in the room, something which, human or inhuman, had 
acted upon her senses like a magnet. Without knowing 
why, her pulses uncomfortably quickened, her sensibilities 
became painfully acute ; with such highly-organized 
natures as hers, this psychic experience is not uncommon. 
To shake off the thraldom of the magnetic force she moved 
to the next glass case to examine its contents, but her 
interest had waned, she felt incapable of intelligent thought. 
The approach of something whose near presence seemed in 
a way connected with her increasing nervousness compelled 
her to turn her head : she could not have resisted if she 
had tried. At that moment her whole being was expectant ! 
Her actions passed beyond her self-control, the room 

21 


322 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


contained nothing but herself and this new devastating 
force. Yet her mind had not connected any individual 
human being with that power. 

So when Michael Ireton's eyes looked into hers as she 
turned what he imagined to be eyes of welcome to him, 
the shock made her for a few moments mentally uncon- 
scious and physically powerless. 

To Stella hours seemed to pass before she could say the 
conventional “ How do you do ? Indeed she never 
said it, nor did Michael Ireton think it necessary to speak. 

The whole bearing of the man was just the same as it 
had been on the first night when she had seen him, when 
his dominating personality had drawn her eyes to him 
across the crowd of faces at the opera. 

At last, struggling and bravely fighting for command 
of her voice, she said, scarcely above a whisper, “ I 
didn't see you during the lecture : were you there ? " 

He took her nervously offered hand in an eager grasp, 
which conveyed to the girl the sense of an enfolding em- 
brace. “ Yes, I was there, and I knew you were, though 
I didn't see you." 

She withdrew her hand. 

He looked at her questioningly. “ Are you . . . ? " He 
hesitated . . . Are you alone ? " 

“ No, I am not alone ! " Stella knew that he meant 
to say, ‘‘ Is your husband here ? " for the whole expression 
of the man told her that he thought she was married. 
There was an air of accepted severance from any attitude 
of a possible lover, which is unmistakable in a woman's 
mind. She turned her head towards the talking people 
who were striving to get as near to the celebrated explorer 
as possible. “ I am with my old school -mistress. Miss 
MacNaughtan ; she is over there — that lady with the 
beautiful grey hair and dark eyes " — her voice was gaining 
strength. 

‘‘ I see," he said, unthinkingly, for his eyes were looking 
at Stella's hands. The exquisitely-fitting white si.ede 
gloves were inexorable ; if she wore a wedding-ring he 
could not see it. . . . There was a pregnant pause again. 
The burden of their hearts was too heavy for their lips 
to speak of small things : to ask each other how they were 
would have been the bitterest sarcasm when they were 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


323 


horribly conscious that it was just of how they were that 
they dared not speak. To have answered the question 
truly would have been to avow the primitive and ele- 
mental forces which made up the sum-total of how they 
were at the actual moment. To have said how they had 
been since they had last met would have been humanly 
impossible. How they had been outwardly, and how 
they were, they could see with their eyes. 

The girl saw that the man had hardened, and yet had 
not become embittered ; each line on his rugged face 
had deepened, each mark of fortitude grown surer. She 
saw in him a man too big, in the bigness of things that 
deal with the ungovernable laws of life, to allow himself 
to be vanquished by the scathing hand of Fate. 

And he saw in the girl, physically fragile as she had 
become, a new womanhood far dearer and more desirable 
than that which had gone before. He saw in her, as the wife 
of another, the only woman for whom his manhood had 
suffered starvation. These impressions were the immediate 
action of the senses, too swift for words. 

“ I have had no news of you since we parted,"" he said 
at last. “You must have much to tell me . . . may I hear 
it ...?"" he looked at her with gentle eyes ... “I can 
bear it, dear friend."" 

Stella"s lips quivered. “ You haven"t heard, you don"t 
know . . ."" she paused . . . “ of my cousin"s death . . . 
and what caused it; you have heard nothing since . . . 
since that night ? "" 

“ I have been out of Europe ; I wanted to cut myself 
off from all news until . . ."" he looked at her searchingly ; 
he saw that she was trembling and deeply moved : evidently 
there had been some painful tragedy connected with her 
cousin"s death. Stella made an effort to tell him, but he 
prevented her. “ Not just now,"" he said gently. “ Seeing 
me has suddenly recalled unhappy memories : don"t let it 
distress you ; you must tell me everything some other 
time. . . y He paused before asking, “ May I come and 
see you ... or would you prefer that I did not ? "" 

His eyes assured her that if he came it would be in no 
manner that need embarrass her or cause her husband 
the slightest annoyance. He waited a moment for her 
answer. 


324 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


“ You must think me very silly/' she said, struggling 
to control the trembling of her lips and to regain her self- 
possession, “but" — she raised star-like eyes to his — “you 
are quite right : seeing you again so unexpectedly has 
brought back everything . . . poor Girgis ! ... so much 
has happened . . . far more than you think ! " 

‘‘ I understand," he said soothingly, “ you needn't say 
any more ... I won't ask to come . . . some day per- 
haps, when things are less vivid, you will tell me all." He 
turned to go, but the same cry came to Stella's lips that 
had escaped them on that awful night . . . the night when 
Vernon saved her father's life. 

“ Don't go ! Oh, don't go ... it isn't that ! " But 
her cry, which would have been so sweet to his ears, was 
unheard, for in a clear, loud voice some one spoke to him 
and laid a white-gloved hand on his arm from behind. The 
speaker was a beautiful American girl, whose quick glance 
took in with some curiosity of expression Stella's unusual 
quality of good looks and her fine individuality of dress : 
in the peculiar transparency of complexion and the deli- 
cacy of figure there was something curiously star-like and 
ethereal about Stella when she was in evening dress. As 
the American drew her eyes from her reluctantly she 
said : “ Oh, Mr. Ireton, at last I've run you to earth ! 
I so much want to introduce you to my great friend Jewel 
Gibson : you've heard me speak of her many times." 

Stella quickly turned away and made a good pretence of 
examining the contents of the glass case by which she had 
been standing when Michael Ireton came up to her. An 
unconscious flame of jealousy leapt through her veins ; it 
served to steady her excited nerves. She had noticed the 
expression of pleasure that instantly lit up Michael Ireton 's 
heavily moulded features when he discovered who the 
owmer of the hand which was put on his arm to arrest his 
attention was. 

The girl was so eager and radiant in the full bloom 
of her newly developed womanhood, so wide-browed and 
clear-eyed, a type of the most enchanting of American 
daughters, that Stella felt herself to be cruelly seared and 
battered beside her. 

It was the first time that the physical effect of sorrow 
had laid its cold hand on her heart. It was the first time 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


325 


that she had found herself distanced from unspotted youth. 
From where she stood she could watch Michael Ire ton 
talking to her if she turned her back to the glass case, 
and even while it hurt her to see him with the girl when 
he might have still been talking to herself it gave her a 
curious pleasure. A little solace came to her when he 
more than once turned anxiously round, as though he were 
looking to see where she had disappeared to. 

If only she could have said three more words, to tell him 
that she was not married, he would have understood the 
real meaning of her emotion. He would have known that 
he might come and see her. But these were the very words 
she knew that she could never say unless he deliberately 
asked her the question, and there was no mistaking the 
meaning of his voice when he said, “ I understand ; you 
need not explain."' 

He thought that one of the many things that had hap- 
pened was her marriage with Vernon, instead of it being 
one of the many things which had not happened, as she had 
meant her words to imply. While she watched him talking 
to the two girls her jealous eye imagined that Michael 
Ireton was fond of the beautiful girl, that he had in all 
probability, and very wisely, thrown himself into an intimate 
friendship with her in his desire to forget and conquer his 
love for herself. And the girl's manner she imagined was 
a little proprietary ; it suggested something very feminine 
and confiding. 

With a war of conflicting emotions tearing at her 
nerves, Stella sought Miss MacNaughtan. 

My dear child, you are tired to death. What is 
the matter ? " she laid a caressing hand on the girl's 
arm. 

‘‘ Yes, I am deadtii^d/' SteUa said languidly . “ Do you 

mind if I go home . . . no . . . don't let me take you 
away, I can perfectly well go alone." 

Even as she said the words she wondered why she was 
asking to go when she knew that her desire to stay in the 
same building as Michael Ireton for as long as she could 
was greater than anything in the world — to stay, even 
though there was not the faintest likelihood of her being 
able to speak to him again that night — to stay and watch 
him speaking to the beautiful American girl, whose blue 


326 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


eyes seemed to smile so trustingly at him, even though 
watching them tore her heart to pieces. 

And yet she went on with her request to go home, for 
there are so many parts in the entirety of one suffering 
woman that many actions are done, and imaccountable 
words are spoken, by one part of her that knows not the 
other. Actions which change the whole currents of our 
lives are done by mere fragments of us, actions for which 
the united parts of us have to suffer. 

The nervous, overstrung mental part of Stella hungered 
at the moment for the peace and security of home ; the 
human and elemental part of her himgered for the near 
presence of her lover. The instinctive desire to be near 
and touch the object one admires, let it be animate or 
inanimate, had been overruled in Stella by her nervous 
mentality. 

Less sensitively strung natures are at such moments 
capable of acting more wisely ; if happiness lies within 
their grasp they are able to seize it and keep it ; they 
gain their desires and bestow blessings on others by the 
possession of sensibilities not too delicately attuned. 

As ]Miss MacXaughtan hurried Stella off to the cloak-room 
to get their evening wraps, she wondered if anything 
very unusual had occurred, or if Stella's present delicate 
state of health was accountable for this sudden avalanche 
of physical tiredness which had made the girl look as though 
a draught of cold air would blow her out. But there 
was something about the girl's appearance which did not 
suggest mere physical exhaustion — she looked much more 
as though her nerves had received a sudden shock. Miss 
MacXaughtan knew Stella's nature far too well to question 
her, so nothing was said by either of them in the cloak- 
room. As they opened the door, to Stella's unutterable 
astonishment, they came face to face with ^lichael Ireton ! 
Then Miss MacXaughtan understood. He had evidently 
been hurrying so as not to miss them. A flush of the 
clearest crimson instantly dyed Stella's pale face. 

“ I couldn't let you go without saying good-bye . . . 
Mrs. Thorpe," he said. “ I lost you in the hall. . . . May 
I see you into your taxi, or have you a motor ? " 

Stella looked at him gratefully — how comforting it was 
to feel that he had not let her drift out of his life without 


A WIPE OUT OF EGYPT 


327 


even trying to find her ! — ^yet all she managed to say was, 
“ A taxi if we can get one. May I introduce you to my 
friend, Miss MacNaughtan ? 

“ How do you do ? "" Michael Ireton said cordially, while 
a smile of genuine pleasure lit up his eyes. “ I have very 
often heard Mrs. Thorpe speak of you in Egypt. I am 
very glad to have had the chance of meeting you.” 

Miss MacNaughtan looked critically at the man as he 
spoke. Did he mean anything to Stella ? Had a chance 
meeting with him perhaps been the cause of her sudden 
physical tiredness ? She wished she knew. SteUa had 
certainly blushed and was obviously affected by his ap- 
pearance at the cloak-room door, but whether the girl 
liked him or not she was unable to surmise. Stella had 
fallen behind, driven by the contrary forces at work in her 
into separating herself from Michael as far as possible, 
though afterwards she would go over in her mind every 
step she took which brought her nearer and nearer to the 
parting of their ways. As she walked behind them his 
words “Mrs. Thorpe"" kept ringing in her ears. If one of 
the impulses that were at work in her could have spoken 
it would have cried aloud, “ I am Hadassah Lekejian, not 
Mrs. Thorpe. I am free ; don"t leave me."" 

A storm of doubt was troubling IMiss MacNaughtan. 
At the moment the girTs happiness was everything to 
her : and was this one of the crucial moments of her life ? 
Would it add to Stella"s happiness if she were to teU this 
man that she was still unmarried ? And yet, if Stella had 
desired him to know it, why had she not told him the fact 
herself ? She had talked to him already that evening. 
There are no words which can adequately express the 
curious certainty the older woman felt that this chance 
encoimter with this very unusual-looking man meant a 
great deal to her pupil. He had only spoken to her about 
the most ordinary matters for a few moments, yet he had 
made her feel that to know any one who cared for SteUa 
was a pleasure to him, that whether she was SteUa 
Thorpe or SteUa Lekejian his mind and heart were fuU 
of her. 

They had to separate for a moment whUe Michael Ireton 
hastUy got his coat and hat ; stiU they were too near to 
him to aUow her to ask Stella any questions. ^Vhen he 


328 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 

rejoined them and Stella had again given up her place at 
his side to her chaperon, Miss MacNaughtan suddenly 
said, as though she was driven into doing so as a last 
resource of her wits, because they were now at the front 
door and an empty taxi had drawn up for them to get 
into : 

“ My old pupil is still Stella Adair, as we used to call 
her — ^you have not apparently heard that she did not 
marry Vernon Thorpe . . . her cousin's tragic death 
broke off their engagement." 

Not married ? " A flash of almost boyish happiness 
lit up his strong face and opened Miss MacNaughtan s 
heart to him for ever : it told her all that she wanted to 
know about the character and personality of this man who, 
she now knew, loved, with the simplicity and unchanging- 
ness of a big man's nature, her darling pupil. 

They were not suited to one another," she said in a 
lower tone ; ‘‘ everything is better as it is." 

“ Thank you for telling me," he said : “ I have been 
away so long." 

The porter who had been asking Stella if she wished for 
the taxi, in an impatient voice, had now opened the door. 
The girl said mechanically, “ Naughtie, this is our taxi. 
Are you ready ? " 

“ Yes, dear, I'm coming." 

Michael Ireton was shaking hands with her ; Stella heard 
him say, “ Thank you for telling me." She could see by 
his face that he knew she was free. The next moment 
Miss MacNaughtan was seated in the taxi, and Michael 
Ireton was waiting for her to shake hands with him and 
take her place in the cab. 

As she put her foot — that exquisite foot he knew so well, 
in its shimmering satin slipper — on the step, she held out 
her hand. 

He took it with a clasp which to the girl was deliciously 
expressive of possession ; he meant her to understand that 
she was his. Md as sctlcuTidli*^ (good-bye), he said ten- 
derly, ‘‘ wa atekum essalam wa-bara^at Allah** (and on you 
be the peace and the blessing of God). 

He used the familiar Arabic words of parting intention- 
ally, for not only were they beautiful, but he wished to 
show her as plainly as possible that her connection with 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 329 

the East was a pleasant memory to him . . . that on 
that account she need have no misgivings. 

As Stella answered his compelling gaze with eyes which 
denied him no expression of her love, she said softly : 
“ Tkattan Allah (thank you), Michael, ma as salamah ” 
(good-bye). . . . The words meant literally, ‘‘ May God 
increase your goodness : good-bye."" 

The next moment Stella"s hand was withdrawn and she 
was seated by Miss MacNaughtan"s side, the taxi door was 
slammed, and they had moved quickly off into the night. 

As Michael Ireton stood alone on the kerbstone watching 
their disappearance, he suddenly remembered that he had 
not got her address, that he had let her go without asking 
her where she lived. Nor had he heard any direction given 
to the driver, for in his mind"s eye he could see Miss Mac- 
Naughtan raise the speaking-tube to her lips while he was 
saying good-bye to Stella, andgive thedriver his instructions. 
He made ready to jump into the next taxi that pulled up 
to fill the place of the one that had just vanished, but it 
was impossible to do so, for an elderly lady had hailed it 
and quickly took possession of it. 

Stella was completely lost to him in the millions of souls 
which live in London. 

Defeated in his attempt to follow her, he continued to 
walk slowly on, his whole being still on fire with the 
memory of the ungrudging love Hadassah had offered to 
him in her eyes. Even though she was lost in London, 
she was his absolutely, and he knew it. Every sense in 
him at that moment told him that Stella was even now re- 
joicing in his love for her ; under such circumstances nothing 
else seemed to matter, nothing was insurmountable. She 
was free to give herself to him when he found her, and as 
he had two legs of his own and a tongue in his head, he 
would find her. He did not know that he had but one day 
to do it in, for alas ! Stella was leaving London for Lucerne 
the day after. 

As he walked on, not taking the trouble to ask himself 
where he was going, he thought of every possible means 
of discovering her whereabouts. Often as he had 
heard Stella allude to her old school-days in London, he 
had no recollection of ever having heard her mention 
where her school was situated. He wondered if Miss 


330 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


MacNaughtan was a member of the Royal Geographical 
Society, or if she was using some friend's tickets for the 
lecture ; he must look up the list of members the next 
morning. 

In going over the events of the evening in his mind, he 
realized that Hadassah had been trying to tell him that 
she was not married, that she had not meant to tell him 
not to come, that seeing him so suddenly had upset her — 
it had brought back to her all the painful events of their 
last meeting. 

Then doubts attacked him. Even now that she was 
free, would she have allowed him to come and see her — 
had she only given him that parting look of love because 
she knew that he would not find her ? With her hyper- 
sensitive nature she might think it was her duty, con- 
sidering her social position in Cairo, to prevent him marry- 
ing her. 

As he thought of the delicacy of her appearance, a fierce 
desire to hold her closely to him overwhelmed him. Her 
exquisite fragility appealed to every chord of strength in 
his muscular body. The hunger to crush her filled him. 

It was a beautiful night, almost Italian in the warmth 
of the air and the violet tone of the sky. Michael Ireton 
wandered on, not dreaming of where he was going, but 
following unconsciously the demand in his present mood 
for the sympathy of beautiful surroundings, he found 
himself crossing the bridge which spans the artificial lake 
in St. James's Park. There he stopped instinctively. 
The outline of the Government buildings at the West- 
minster end of the water, so curiously Oriental in effect 
against the purple of the night sky, seemed to be the very 
atmosphere for the crisis in his life, into which he had 
been unconsciously drawn. Though Hadassah was lost to 
him in the great city whose very pulse-beat he could feel 
where he stood, as totally lost to him as he had seemed 
to her only a few hours before, he no longer felt alone in 
London, as ho had done that very morning. He felt that 
to the great pulse of London there was now added another 
heart-beat whose gentle movement he could feel and 
hear above all the roar of the distant traffic. As he gazed 
at the exquisite reflections on the still water of the lake, 
and let the continuous whirr of the traffic pour in upon 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


331 


his senses like the dull roar of an incoming sea, a great 
peace entered his soul. Somewhere in the vast city, 
seething with the striving and struggling of six million 
souls, his darling was living and breathing. It seemed 
as though, out of all the marvellous ocean of humanity, 
her exquisite virginity stood out in a halo of light. Her 
gentle heart-beat reached his ardent senses as clearly as 
though nothing existed in the city but herself and his 
listening ears, as though space did not matter when love 
defies all natural laws. 

The indescribable loneliness he had experienced since 
his arrival in London from distant lands had vanished, 
he had no desire now to leave the next morning. His 
one idea was to remain — ^remain until he had found her. 

Only a few hours ago he had felt that his loneliness was 
greater than he could bear, for there is no place in the 
wide world where a human soul can feel himself so much 
alone as in London. The loneliness of London is not like 
the beautiful solitude of the desert. The loneliness of 
London is unhuman and cruel. In the desert nothing 
comes between man and his Creator, there they are in 
constant communion. In London the Creator is very far 
to seek. 

In London, where six million pulses beat, there is a 
loneliness awaiting the lonely which is very far from 
God. 

By the obliteration of the world around him, and by 
the intense concentration of his thoughts, it seemed to 
Michael Ireton that he was able to enter into communion 
with Stella's soul. The lately -discovered news that he 
could now indulge himself in the joy of thinking about 
her seemed to enable him to draw her spiritually into his 
enfolding arms. He even wondered if she could feel the 
sense of his embrace : had it soothed her as it comforted 
him ? His fighting back of the sudden vivid attacks of 
her personality, which he had practised for so long when 
his great need had been to forget her, had now no longer 
to be practised. It seemed almost impossible that he 
might now, with no wrong either to her memory or to his 
own soul, embrace with unlimited joy every suggestion of 
her sweetness. In a dream he stood on, letting the late 
hours of the night go by unheeded, in complete abandon- 


332 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


merit to the joy and hopes which filled the new world that 
the night had given him. 

For many years Michael Ireton had lived a life almost 
devoid of the society of women, for his profession had 
taken him into distant parts of the world, where primitive 
natives were the only women he saw. He had led too 
exciting and too busy an existence to miss their com- 
panionship, and during the months which he had spent at 
home he had, until only a few years ago, stayed with a very 
aged grand-uncle who had brought him up in a desolate 
village in Wales. The old man had died the year before 
Ireton first saw Stella, but he had lived long enough 
to see his nephew — for whom he had stinted and saved 
during his public-school life and all through the years he 
had spent in training for his life as a mining engineer — 
a successful and highly-paid member of his profession. 
In return, Michael had devoted every day of his sojourns 
in England to his uncle, guarding, and administering to, 
his smallest wants with the tenderness and unselfishness 
of a woman. Every luxury the enfeebled old man could 
enjoy Michael gloried in procuring for him, and he was 
able to do so, for he had, as Nicolas imagined, speculated 
successfully in rubber. He never grudged one of the 
long hours he spent sitting beside the invalid’s chair, telling 
him about the minutest details of his last expedition. 

For some years now he had been in a position to refuse 
all but the most tempting offers made to him in his pro- 
fession. He handed over the less remunerative ones to 
young fellows who had served under him, and who were 
eager for advancement. Since his uncle’s death he had 
seen more of the world of men and women who mix in 
fashionable London society than he had done during all 
the other years of his life. At first he had found himself 
strangely out of his element, for his former theoretical 
knowledge of women had made him place them on an 
almost inhuman pedestal of virtue, with the result that 
he never really got to know them and very seldom found 
himself completely at ease with them. They had always 
been conscious of his opinion of them, with the result that 
they were afraid to be quite natural, in case they should 
fall from their pedestals. He had thought of them all his 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


333 


life as delicate, sensitive creatures, infinitely more refined 
than men. When he found himself knowing them per- 
sonally, he felt himself rough and unconventional beside 
them, and was afraid of boring them with serious con- 
versations. At first he had been entirely devoid of all 
small talk, and had envied the ease of the men who had 
been accustomed to mixing freely in women's society all 
their lives. 

But since he had met Stella and loved her, as he had 
done at first sight, with all the devotion and completeness 
of his simple nature, his attitude towards women had 
changed. He had sought their society and had got on 
with them much better. He enjoyed testing Stella, as it 
were, against the brains and sympathies and characteristics 
of other delightful women. 

He had, in fact, been trying his best to fall in love. He 
had been endeavouring to displace Stella in his thoughts, 
to shatter her image from the altar of his heart. 

Some of the women he had singled out had charmed 
him for a little time, and not a few of them had shown 
him the fact that his attentions were not distasteful to 
them ; for Michael was the sort of man to whom delicately- 
attuned women were naturally attracted. His quiet 
force and noticeably powerful physique appealed to the 
contrasting qualities in themselves. To the very feminine 
the very masculine makes devastating appeals. 

But, exquisite as they were to his eye, none of them 
meant anything to the deeper qualities of his nature, the 
qualities that hungered for the girl's spiritual as well 
as physical attractiveness. They became in the end 
merely interesting and likeable in so far as they were, 
as women, Stella's sisters. He knew that Stella might 
be like a thousand and one other women in other men's 
eyes, but she was absolutely unique in his, as no doubt 
all the beautiful women he met were in some other men's 
eyes. 

Many of them had answered the sum of the require- 
ments in his nature in certain moods ; Stella responded to 
all, and besides, she had called into being new wants in 
his nature, wants which produced a hunger he had never 
known before. Unconsciously Stella had become an 
actual part of his life, even though he had fought bravely 


334 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


to drive her out of it. It was always with a sense of relief 
that he left gay scenes and large gatherings and got 
back to his mental companionship with her in his own 
rooms. Now and then, after he had shaken off the effects 
of some slight attack which had been made upon his 
feelings by the pleasant adulation of a new acquaintance, 
his mind would rush back to Stella with renewed force. 
It was like going home to all that was dearest and best 
after a period of difficulty and doubt. 

To-night he could not return to his room in his club, 
for to-night had given Stella back to him, and he did not 
wish to lose one moment's consciousness of the fact. He 
felt closer to her and more capable of enjoying the delight 
of dwelling upon new hopes and the limitless possibilities 
of love, under the star-lit sky, while his eyes unconsciously 
took in the Oriental outline of the tall buildings, connected 
in his mind with the beauty of Cairo, than in his conven- 
tional London bedroom. 

He never doubted the possibility of finding her: it 
was merely a matter of time and patience. Now that she 
was free, and her eyes had lavished their burden of love 
upon him, nothing really mattered, nothing was insur- 
mountable. If he could not find her in London, he would 
write to her father's address in Cairo, and tell his clerk 
to forward his letter to his mistress. 

His mind was full of thoughts ! Then a fresh anger 
at his own stupidity disturbed him. Why had he allowed 
her to go without getting her address ? If only he had 
had his wits about him he could have gone to her in the 
morning and taken her into his arms. To-morrow he 
might have felt her first kisses on his lips, her slim arms 
round his neck. He became so impatient at the thought 
that he had to walk up and down the length of the bridge 
to calm his restlessness. As he returned to the place he 
had been leaning over a woman, wrapped in a tattered 
black shawl, crept up to him and held out her hand. He 
dismissed her instantly. It was always a difficult matter 
for him to exercise the genuine self-control he found 
necessary in withstanding the appeals of beggars in London, 
where the contrast of wealth and poverty is so appalling. 

. . . The woman moved away — ^her obedience was expres- 
sive of absolute hopelessness ; Michael Ireton suddenly 


A WIPE OUT OF EGYPT 


335 


called her back. Her tragic eyes were like Stella's, he 
could not let her go ! In his hand were a handful of 
coins, silver and copper : he held them out to her. The 
woman looked at him quickly to see if he was drunk, then 
seized the proffered money with a quick, bird-like claw 
and fled into the night. 


CHAPTER XXXI 


The next morning Michael began his search for Stella. 
His only hope of finding her, by direct means, lay in|the 
chance that Miss MacNaughtan was a member of the 
Royal Geographical Society — ^if she was, he could easily 
get her address by applying to the secretary of the society 
for a list of the members. Her name was not in the 
Directories because she called her school Prince's College. 

Soon after ten o'clock he was in the secretary's office, 
and after a good half-hour's impatient waiting he had the 
list of the members in front of him. Never, since the 
days when he had eagerly looked to see if his own name 
was amongst the successful competitors in his engineering 
examinations, had he felt so agitated or nervous in reading 
through a list of names. Twice his heart seemed to stop 
beating, when he came across the word MacNaughtan, 
but it was only a momentary thrill, for in both cases the 
members were males. With a defeated sigh he threw 
down the list : there was no Miss MacNaughtan amongst 
the members, she must have had cards of invitation sent 
to her through some friend. His next plan of action was 
to spend the entire morning in inspecting the fashionable 
shops where he thought wealthy girls like Stella would be 
likely to go. 

He first chose Landwools at Knightsbridge, because the 
shop was associated in his mind with the most beautiful 
Englishwomen he saw on his return from savage lands. 
He took it for granted that almost every woman spent 
her mornings in London shopping. With the ingenuity 
born of love, he managed to find some excuse for walking 
through a greater part of the buildings. Downstairs, 
charming girls and sumptuously-dressed women were 
selecting gloves and stockings and laces, and feminine 
fripperies of all sorts, the cost of which would have 

336 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


337 


appalled Michael Ireton's simple bachelor soul. Upstairs 
the same class of luxurious shoppers were sitting on 
comfortable lounges watching young girls parade up and 
down the show-rooms in model gowns. 

Michael Ireton was too embarrassed to do more than 
glance at these lovely creatures, whose faces appeared 
to him too delicate and too unreal to be human. His 
feelings were shocked at this parade of soulless beauty. 
It seemed to him indelicate and immoral. Under the 
pretext that he was looking for a lady who had appointed 
to meet him, he strode through the various rooms, satis- 
fying himself that Stella was not one of the seated cus- 
tomers who were critically surveying the garments worn 
by the mincing mannequins. 

He was glad of it, for his tenderness for women revolted 
agamst the spectacle. Only at Tattersall’s had he seen 
men inspecting horses trotted out for sale as he now saw 
these women criticizing the girls whose lives are devoted 
to the cult of their bodies for the displaying of gowns 

to be worn by the wealthy parasites. Disappointed but 

not defeated, he went to Harrods. By purchasing some 
small articles here and there he was at liberty to walk 
about the various departments of the popular stores 
which his male mind selected as being most seductive 
to the female. If any one had asked him why he was 

looking for Stella in these various haunts of feminine 

vanity, he could not have answered, but it seemed to him 
that he had as good a chance of seeing her there as of not 
seeing her. She must have things to buy, as she did not 
live in London. But she was not at Harrods, so he betook 
himself to the Army and Navy Stores in Victoria Street, 
where his perseverance was instantly rewwded, for who 
should he meet coming down the steps of the building 
into the street but Miss MacNaughtan ! 

Michael Ireton lifted his hat and stopped abruptly in 
front of her, but she slipped past him and hurried on. 
A taxi-cab was waiting for her at the foot of the steps. 

“ Good morning,"" she said as she passed him ; ‘‘ so 
sorry I have no time to speak just now — I must get to 
Victoria Station by twelve o"clock."" 

As she stepped into her taxi Michael Ireton, who had 
followed her, said, “Tell me your address: I must see you,"" 
22 


338 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


‘‘ 233, Prince's Gate, Kensington." But as she said the 
words a private motor-car, with a whistle like that of a 
train, passed. As its whistle rent the air her address was 
swallowed up in its arrogant roar. 

Michael cursed the thing with a gorgeous energy. A taxi- 
cab, passing at the same moment, stopped — he had hailed 
it — and as he jumped in he said to the driver, “ Do you see 
that taxi passing that lorry covered with green tarpaulin ? 
If you can overtake it before we get to Victoria Station, 
or don't lose sight of it when it arrives there, I'll give you 
a sovereign." 

The next moment they were off, and the race began. 
Michael Ireton strained his eyes to keep the taxi ahead 
of them well in sight : it had only had the start of him by 
about a minute, but one minute goes a long way in a 
London street if there is nothing to block the traffic, and 
at the moment the street was singularly clear. But his 
taxi was gaining ground, they wo^d soon be abreast of 
Miss MacNaughtan ! The next moment something in 
the inner mechanism of the machine jammed and they 
came to a dead halt, the driver jumped off his seat and 
opened the door. “ Here you are, sir, get into this one " 
— another taxi was within a yard of him — “ and give my 
pal the quid : he'll do it for you." 

‘‘ Don't lose sight of that 'ere taxi — it's going to Victoria 
Station ; this gent wants to catch it up — he's good for a 
quid." 

They were off again, but by this time Miss MacNaughtan 's 
taxi was lost in the crowd of other cabs and motors which 
were pressing their way into the station yard : at least 
it was lost to Michael, who felt convinced that the driver 
too had failed to keep his eye on it. But he was wrong. 
To arrive at the station entrance by keeping in the order 
of the long line of vehicles would have meant missing Miss 
MacNaughtan when she got out of one of the front taxis, 
so Michael jumped out of his when it was about the eighth 
in order from the one which was being unloaded of its 
luggage by the porters. 

He watched the occupants of the five taxis, which, with 
three private cars, made up the line of eight which was in 
front of him. Miss MacNaughtan was not in any of them. 
He returned to his driver, who had agreed to wait until 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 339 

he had found his friend : ‘‘ WeVe lost it ; I can't find my 
friend." 

‘‘ No, we 'av'n't, sir. I thought I was right : a lady got 
out of the taxi we was following so quick that I wasn't 
sure if I was mistaken. She didn't stop to pay the man, 
but ran as quick as a girl — but she wasn't a girl, sir. Was 
that who you'd be looking for ? Had she on a grey coat, 
sir ? " 

Michael Ireton put his hand in his pocket and drew out 
half a crown : “ Take that," he said, “ and wait a few 
moments : I hope I'll have to give you the sovereign." 

If Miss MacNaughtan was leaving London by a train 
that started at twelve o'clock, he had lost her ; if she was 
only going to see some friend off by a train leaving at 
that hour, there was hope that he might meet her. He 
would wait to see if she came out, trusting to luck that she 
would leave the station by the same exit as she entered, 
which was likely, as she had not paid for her cab. 

Wondering what he had better do if he did not meet 
her, he walked meditatingly into the busy station. It 
was seven minutes past twelve. He stopped under the 
big clock. As his eyes dropped from looking at its face they 
suddenly met the laughing and kindly eyes of Miss Mac- 
Naughtan staring at him. 

He rushed eagerly forward and said, “ Ah ! I've found 
you." 

‘‘ So it seems," she said, still beaming with humour. 

‘‘ And now that I've found you I'm not going to let 
you out of my sight until you have told me where you 
live." 

Her kindly smile turned into a good-natured laugh: 
the man was so ardent that he might have been her lover. 

My address ! " she said, why, I called it out to you from 
the taxi." 

“ I couldn't hear it. I've been searching for you all the 
morning — don't laugh, indeed I have; it is the greatest 
stroke of luck that I have found you now." 

“ Looking for me ? " 

“ Yes, for you, because you can tell me where Miss 
Lekejian lives : I let you go away last night without getting 
your address or hers." 

‘‘ Does Stella wish you to know it ? " 


340 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


“ I think so. I made a mistake last night — I thought 
she was married. When you told me she wasn't ... I, 
well, I lost my head, I forgot everything else." 

They had reached the station exit, so Miss MacNaughtan 
said quickly, “ If you have had time to look for me all 
over London, you must have time to drive with me while 
we talk . . ." she smiled good-naturedly . . . “ we can't 
speak here, can we ? " 

At that moment the taxi-driver who had been waiting 
for Michael Ireton's return came up. “ Begging your 
pardon, sir, is that the lady you wanted ? " 

Michael Ireton put his hand in his pocket and took out 
his sovereign purse. Miss MacNaughtan watched him 
with a fine light of appreciation twinkling in her eyes. 
When he had taken a pound out of its neatly fitting abode 
he said : “ You're welcome to it : it's the best-spent 

sovereign I've ever parted with in London." 

“ Thank you, sir," the man said ; ‘‘ good luck to you." 
He was wondering in his heart as he spoke why the fine- 
looking gentleman's queer eyes glowed with happiness 
because he had met the grey-haired lady who was certainly 
old enough to be his aunt. 

When they were comfortably settled in the taxi. Miss 
MacNaughtan said, with the air of frankness which was 
her most characteristic quality and charm, ‘‘ I'm afraid 
you'll be terribly disappointed when I tell you that I 
was one minute too late to say good-bye to Stella . . . 
she has gone to Switzerland." 

“ Gone to Switzerland ? What ghastly luck ! Do you 
know her address ? " His eyes pleaded. 

“ Yes, but are^you certain she would like you to have 
it ? Have I any right to give it ? You spoke to her last 
night — why didn't you ask her for it ? " 

“I did" 

“ And she refused . . . then I can't." 

“ No, I know now that she didn't refuse, I thought she 
did . . . she was upset by seeing me." 

Miss MacNaughtan put her hand lightly on his arm. 
“ I think we must be frank with one another. ... I 
love Stella — I brought her up; she is almost my own 
child." 

“ And I love her too ; I loved her from the first moment 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 341 

I saw her . . . how can I make you believe that she is the 
only woman I have ever loved ? 

Miss MacNaughtan smiled at his direct avowal ; she liked 
the man for his simplicity of speech and determination. 
“ I thought as much/' she said : her eyes were smiling 
contentedly; this big man pleased her; she could have 
wished she was a girl again, with Stella's appealing charm, 
for there is no age-limit to a human being's desire for 
devotion. ‘‘ You behave like a man in love,'^ she said, 

but I like you none the less for it." Her eyes laughed 
indulgently as she spoke. At the same moment the taxi 
pulled up at her own door, and Michael Ireton's heart went 
into his boots. Was she going to send him off without the 
coveted address ? She was kind, but she was tactfully 
evasive. 

It was one of Miss MacNaughtan's extravagances to 
hire taxis from the garage nearest to her house and keep 
them waiting for her for hours. When her huge account 
came in at the end of the year she smiled and congratu- 
lated herself on the fact that it was not as big as the cost 
of the upkeep of a motor would be, and there are times 
when your motor is under repair ! 

Won't you come in ? " she said, ‘‘ I'm inquisitive. I 
want to know more of the man who is going to follow my 
child to Switzerland . . ." she paused, ‘‘ shall Isay it ? . . . 
of the man who had the power to upset her so last 
night." 

‘‘ May I come in ? . . . Oh, thank you ... I should 
like to see the home Hadassah loved so much." 

“ You call her Hadassah ? " 

Yes, I prefer the old Eastern form of the name 
‘ Esther.' " 

They were in the hall by this time, and Miss MacNaughtan 
turned to him with one of her impetuous movements. ‘‘ I 
think I know why you prefer to call her Hadassah. . . . 
I'm glad of it . . ." 

He did not speak; he was following her upstairs. 
Clarkson ! " Miss MacNaughtan called out. 

Yes, mum." 

“ I want lunch for two in the library. TeU Miss Bateson 
not to wait for me — ^let them begin their lunch at once." 
She turned to Michael : “ You can stay and have a scrap 


342 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


of lunch with me in my study. I have a lecture at 2.40, 
until then we can talk. Are you free ? 

Michael Ireton was looking round the room ; he was 
feeling Stella's near presence, he was thinking of the years 
she had passed in an atmosphere like this, of beauty and 
refinement. He had never been in her Arab home in Cairo, 
so he did not know that the girl's whole life had been spent 
in the midst of beauty. ‘‘ Wliat charming surroundings for 
a girl like Hadassah to be brought up in ! " he said ; ‘‘ what 
an ideal school ! " — he smiled — “ but is it a school really ? " 
Yes, truly. It is one of my hobbies to instil the love 
of beauty into girls when they are young. I have an idea 
that if they really worship beauty they will be disgusted 
by all that is unloYely” Her eyes expressed the fuller 
meaning of her words. 

‘‘ I quite agree with you : Hadassah is an excellent illus- 
tration of your theory." 

‘‘ Luncheon is served, mum." It was Clarkson's voice 
that interrupted them. 

When they were eating their admirably cooked soles 
Michael Ireton said : ‘‘ It is very kind of you to let me 
do this." 

‘‘ Do what ? Eat your lunch with me ? " 

‘‘ Yes ; I am practically a stranger to you ! " 

That's the very reason why I asked you," she said ; 
“ I want to know you." 

“ I see," he said : “ all the same it's very kind of you ; 
you might have turned me off — it gives me hope." 

“ Like a severe school-mistress." 

He smiled, the smile which made the woman like him 
still more. 

“ I will tell you Stella's address," she said, “ if you will 
explain why you thought she refused it to you last night." 

“ When I met her last night I thought she was married. 
... I mistook her emotion when I asked her if I might 
come and see her for refusal. ... I don't know why she 
was so upset by seeing me : she said a great many dreadful 
things had happened since we had met last. Can you tell 
me?" 

“ You don't know, perhaps, about her cousin Girgis 
Boutros's tragic death ? — it has changed her whole life." 

“ Is he dead ? . . . that magnificent fellow . . . what 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 343 

happened ? . . . was there some tragedy ? ... he was very 
unlike the usual native."" 

Wliile Miss MacNaughtan told him the story of Girgis"s 
death, Michael Ireton remained perfectly silent. When 
she had finished he said : “ You don"t think Hadassah 
ever loved him ? "" His voice broke slightly as he spoke ; 
the woman"s heart was touched for the man"s fear. 

‘‘ No, oh no 1 He was her cousin, but . . . well, how 
can I explain everything ? "" 

‘‘ I know,"" he said ; “ I thought not, I hoped not."" 

There was silence for a moment. 

“ Had his death anything to do with her engagement 
with Vernon Thorpe being broken off ? "" 

“ Yes, it was the loophole for her escape ! She never 
loved him, but how can I better express it than by saying 
she had fallen out of love with him long before Girgis"s 
death ? It was only a girTs infatuation at the best of 
times. Every woman loves being adored, and in England, 
at any rate, Vernon adored her. . . . The dullest sort of 
Englishmen have quite a gift for love-making — that is 
to say, love-making when things are on the footing of 
intimate courtship . . . they are tongue-tied at all other 
times, but excellent at simple ‘ lip service " : and he is very 
good-looking."" They both laughed. 

“ Your cult of the beautiful bearing fruit — his beauty 
made her love him."" 

‘‘ Yes, but his mind ... is it beautiful ? "" 

‘‘ I don"t know, I know nothing about him . . . but 
what earthly chance have I compared to him ? . . . and 
yet . . .'" he looked across the table eagerly at his com- 
panion, “ I will be truthful. Before I knew she was engaged 
I thought I had a chance ; after she told me, of course I 
realized that ours was merely an intellectual affinity. . . ."" 
He thought for a moment. “ Later on in Cairo, the last 
time I saw her, I fancied she cared, but it could only have 
been that she was troubled, that she leaned on me as a 
friend. ... You who know her so well, will you be brutally 
frank and tell me if I"ve any chance. . . . God knows that 
I adore her truly ; you needn"t be afraid to tell me the 
truth ... I left her when I thought it was for her happi- 
ness, I can leave her again. ... I hope I loYe her well 
enough to think of her happiness first,"" 


344 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


“ I think you have a chance,*' she said, “ because you are 
persistent and insistent, and because you evidently are 
more than negative to her : your sudden appearance upset 
her to a very great extent last night. The negative state 
is the one that is hopeless for a lover."^ 

“ It may have been that I reminded her of our last 
meeting, at which the accident happened to Mr. Thorpe 
when he saved her father's life." As he spoke he remem- 
bered Stella's cry of “ Stay, don't go ! I want you." 

“ Don't be down-hearted," Miss MacNaughtan said 
lightly : “ I will be perfectly frank with you. Yesterday 
afternoon I did not think Stella was in love with any one, 
in fact she was very much out of love with every one ; she 
was delighted that she had escaped from the trammels of 
love ; she was congratulating herself on the fact that she 
could now carry out her scheme of work in Egypt . . . has 
she ever mentioned it to you ? But she is looking very ill . . . 
I feel quite anxious about her . . . she has gone through so 
much." 

Michael Ireton's mind was concentrated on the scheme 
of work Stella had once laid before him. “ She has spoken 
of her desire to work amongst the women." 

“ Then you are more than a mere ordinary friend : there 
are things we only tell to people we care for, even if these 
things are no secrets." 

“ I want to help her in that work and I want her to know 
that . . . will you teU her ? " 

“ You would live with her in Cairo ? " 

“ Certainly — ^why not ? ... if she knows me at aU she 
knows I would," his face roUed into smiles . . . “ where 
wouldn't I live with her, I should like to know ? It would 
be a strange place." 

Miss MacNaughtan laughed. “ You are very thorough- 
going about it," she said ; “ it is rather refreshing in these 
unromantic days." 

“ I fell in love with her at first sight ; I would have 
married her the next day if I could. You may think me 
mad or anything else you like, but I'm not. I am simply 
determined to win ... I have seldom been defeated." 

‘‘ Love is madness," Miss MacNaughtan said, “ a beauti- 
ful madness, but still a pronounced form of mania ; it has 
a power of obsession that very little else has." She looked 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


345 


at her wrist- watch. “ But I must go soon — I have a history 
lecture at 2.40. ... I wonder if I shall manage to collect 
my scattered senses."^ She rose to go. 

“ One minute/" he said, ‘‘ you didn"t finish what you were 
saying : I interrupted you."" 

“ Saying ? What about ? "" 

“ You said that in the afternoon you were convinced that 
Hadassah was heart-whole . . . did you not think so . . . 
later on . . . not after we met in the evening ? "" 

“ After she met you, do you mean ? "" 

“ Yes, I mean that . . . you began your sentence as if 
you were going to say something about a change in your 
opinions."" 

Miss MacNaughtan looked at him with serious eyes. 
“ Would it be fair to Stella to say what I thought ? "" she 
said. ... ‘‘ Go and try your luck . . . they are going to 
Lucerne if they find it suits her father . . . you know that 
he is very ill. They are going to stay at the Schweitzerhof 
Hotel for a month."" 

The moment he heard the address Michael Ireton had 
the air of a man ready for instant fiight. 

Miss MacNaughtan held out her hand. “ Now be off 
with you : I know you mean to catch the night boat from 
Dover, and I have to interest my girls in the Seventh 
Crusade."" 

“ Good-bye,"" he said ; “ wish me good luck in my first 
crusade of Love."" 

‘‘ You have my best wishes,"" she said, ‘‘ but go gently, 
for at the present moment your Hadassah is sick of love."" 


CHAPTER XXXII 


In the evening of the day following Michael Ireton w^alked 
into the Schweitzerhof Hotel at Lucerne. He had travelled 
without stopping since three o'clock the day before, but 
he was as spotlessly clean and carefully dressed as though 
he had been leading an idle and luxurious life in the fashion- 
able Swiss resort for weeks. He had driven from the 
station to a smaller hotel, where he had engaged a room for 
one day ; there he had deposited his luggage and changed 
his travel-stained clothes and had had a bath. He was 
boyishly fastidious about his appearance before presenting 
himself to the Lekejians. 

In the hall of the hotel he asked to see the visitors' 
book ; he examined the list of people staying in the hotel 
very carefully. The Lekejians' name was not amongst 
them. His mood of confidence changed to one of doubt. 

He went to the large letter-rack which hung on the wall 
and scanned the addresses of the letters awaiting the 
arrival of coming travellers ; there was nothing in the rack 
addressed to any one of the Lekejian family. With a 
feeling of approaching defeat, he went to the booking-office 
and asked if a famfiy called Lekejian, the friends with 
whom he had come to stay, were in the hotel. 

The clerk looked up. “ What name, sir ? Did you say 
Lekejian ? No, sir ; they were expected this morning, but 
we had a telegram last night cancelling their rooms . . . 
they have not left England on account of illness — Mr. 
Lekejian is very ill. He has stayed here many times, sir ; 
We are extremely sorry." 

‘‘ Thank you," Michael Ireton said. “ Do you know 
where they are staying in England ? " 

The man referred to the telegram. “ No, sir, there is no 
address, but they had not left Dover when this was sent 
off." He handed Michael the telegram. 

346 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


347 


‘‘ Thank you/' 

‘‘ Do you wish a room, sir ? " 

“ Not now, I will return to England. Will you send a 
telegram for me ? I will dine here and wait for a reply/' 

“ Certainly, sir." 

Michael Ireton wote out the wire : it was to Miss Mac- 
Naughtan : ‘‘ Mr. Lekejian ill, not left Dover. Have you 
any information ? If you have please send it, also Dover 
address." 

At 8.30 he got his reply. 

‘‘ Leaving Dover for Cairo. Mr. Lekejian wishes to return 
via Marseilles." 

The telegram fell out of MichaeTs hand. He was making 
a pretence of eating something of the very good dinner 
which the hotel provided for the table d'hote. 

A great pity for Hadassah swept over him ; for the mo- 
ment it wiped out all personal feeling. His defeat and 
disappointment were forgotten. If he could only write 
and tell her how sorry he was for her 1 for undoubtedly Mr. 
Lekejian must be very ill. It seemed to him as though his 
gentle Hadassah was only to pass out of one affliction to 
go into another. 

The details of her cousin Girgis's death had been in his 
mind very vividly during the long journey from London. 
The pathos of it, the youthful folly of it, hurt his strong 
soul. He knew that the boy had offered up his life for 
Egypt because he was not strong enough to live without 
Hadassah's love ; what it meant in the way of courage and 
fight to live without Hadassah he knew only too well. 

He knew that this fragile girl held the sweetness and 
dearness of life for him in the palm of her little hand ; he 
knew that if she sent him away, as Girgis had been sent 
away when he offered himself to her, the world would be, 
not unendurable, as it had been to Girgis, for with forti- 
tude all things are endurable, but it would be scentless and 
soulless ... a mere earth with no flowers for its Eden. 


CHAPTER XXXIII 


There were sorrow and mourning in the old Mamluk house 
in Cairo : Nicolas Lekejian was dead, and Hadassah would 
not be comforted. Unlike the Eastern women of old, who 
tore their hair and beat their breasts and yelled upon the 
house-tops when their nearest and dearest were borne with 
loud manifestations of sorrow to their place among the 
dead, SteUa had remained tearless and unemotional until 
long days of pent-up feeling and sleepless nights of remorse 
had ended in a collapse of nerve and body. 

Without doubt Nicolas Lekejian had died from the shock 
his system had received when Girgis Boutros was arrested 
with his fellow-conspirators, and Stella could not help 
holding herself in a measure responsible for her cousin's 
death. If it had not been for her he would never have 
thrown in his lot with the Nationalists. If she had taken 
more pains to discover what the work was he meant to do 
for Egypt she could have prevented him acting as he did ; 
hence she, felt herself to be not only responsible for her 
cousin's death, but in a measure for her father's also. 

It was absurd, of course, but natural in the highly strung 
state of her nerves and sensibilities. In long hours of 
sleeplessness she exaggerated every unwise step she had 
taken and foolish thing she had said. Her own beauty 
and her quality of attraction became an accursed thing in 
her eyes. 

Her father's love, the love that had been torn from her 
just when she needed it the most, was the only love her 
mind could tolerate or dwell upon. 

If Michael Ireton had come t6 her and said, “ I love you 
madly, Hadassah," if he had repeated the very words of 
her heart's song, the song she had never been able to silence 
since he had first said the words, she would have turned 
from him with shrinking and horror. To love Michael now 

348 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


349 


would seem as dishonourable to her dead father’s memory 
as it had seemed dishonourable to Vernon, when she was 
his promised wife. 

And Michael Ireton did come ! He came one day when 
Mrs. Lekejian was sitting by her daughter, hoping and pray- 
ing that for a little time the girl would sleep, that for a 
little time the tragic eyes would close and the restless limbs 
would rest. His card was handed to her while Stella’s face 
was turned to the wall. She rose quietly and left the room, 
bidding the servant follow her ; Stella cared too little about 
what was happening to even ask herself why her mother 
was going without first explaining her reason for leaving 
her so suddenly. 

“ Tell him,'' she said to the servant, ‘‘ that I cannot see 
him ; explain that we have sorrow in the house, and illness." 
Mrs. Lekejian spoke quietly. 

‘‘ I did tell him that our dear master was dead, sitt, and 
he was very sad ; I told him, my lady, because he said that 
he had been looking for you all over Europe — the big, tall 
man is very much in love ! He asked to see Miss Ha- 
dassah." 

Mrs. Lekejian smiled at the man’s sympathy for the 
impatient lover. In Arabic, this fine arrangement of his 
sentences had been graced with the flowers of his elegant 
language. His announcement that the “ big tall " man 
was very much in love because he asked to see her daughter 
was as amusing as it was true. 

IVIrs. Lekejian's Irish heart melted : she would go and see 
the big, tall man for a few minutes. 

When her slight figure, in widow's weeds, entered the room 
where Michael Ireton was nervously waiting, he almost 
cried out with surprise . . . never before had he thought her 
the least like Hadassah ! Now, with the tragedy of her 
recent loss deepening the beauty of her violet eyes, he 
recognized many points of Stella in her Irish mother. 

He strode forward and held out his hand. Something 
better than words of sympathy was in the grasp he gave 
her and in the expression of tenderness which, like a divine 
light, transformed his rough face. 

They had not seen each other since the night when Vernon 
had saved her husband's life, and the sudden recollection of 


360 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


it brought a lump into both their throats which made speak- 
ing an impossibility. They remained silent. With a gentle 
caress Michael Ireton at last let her hand drop; still in 
silence they stood looking at one another while his eyes 
seemed to say, “We will not speak of your sorrow, you need 
not be afraid — the sorrow of death is sacred."" Feeling this 
she grew braver and said gently, “You wanted to see my 
daughter ? "" 

“ Yes,"" he said; “ is it permitted ? . . . May I ? . . . Will 
you allow me ? "" 

He looked at her to see if she realized his deeper meaning. 

“ Stella is ill,"" she said — “ too unnerved to see any one."" 

“ HI ? "" he said in alarm. 

“ A nervous breakdown ; she will be all right again with 
quiet and care."" 

“ Your daughter and I were friends, Mrs. Lekejian . . . 
do you really think it would do her harm to see me ...?"" 
He sighed wearily. . . . “ How the Fates have conspired 
against me ! "" 

“ I know you were great friends, but she is really too ill, 
it would not be wise at present — the doctor would forbid it."" 

“ I can wait,'' he said doggedly, “ I can go on waiting . . . 
I have waited . . . but don"t you think she would see me 
if she knew I was here, if she knew how far I had travelled 
in the hopes of seeing her, and what difficulty I have had 
in finding you ? "" 

Mrs. Lekejian smiled : the man was not to be easily dis- 
missed. 

His eyes brightened. “ If it is only nervous collapse, it 
might do her good to see an old friend. Will you beg her 
to see me,"" he said, “ if only for five minutes ? Tell her I 
have never stopped looking for her since the night I saw 
her at the Royal Geographical Society"s lecture."" 

Without a word Mrs. Lekejian turned and left the room 
and did what he asked. When she saw that Stella was 
not sleeping she said quite simply, “ Stella, Michael Ireton 
is waiting in the drawing-room ; he has begged me to come 
and ask you if you will see him, if only for five minutes. 
Will you, dear ? — he is terribly insistent ! "" 

“ Michael Ireton ! "" The cry of the words rang through 
the room as Stella uttered them : the next moment she had 
drawn the bed-clothes over her face. “ Oh, mother, don"t 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


351 


let him come, he loves me . . . don't let me hear the word 
Love ever again : it was Love that killed Girgis, it was 
the Love I thought I had for Vernon — it was Love that 
brought about all this unhappiness ... I hate the very 
name of Love." 

‘‘ Since when has he loved you, dearest ? " 

There was no answer, but a nervous sigh. 

“ He seems strong and big and true, poor fellow ! Is he 
to be sent away because my child happens to be cross and 
peevish ? " 

“ Oh, mother, I want only you — I want to be left alone. 
Love has gone out of me, I will never love again." 

‘‘ My dearest, you needn't see him, he will leave you 
alone ; but what about the future ? When you are well again, 
won't you be sorry ? Are you doing wisely ? " 

“ When I am well again I want to work, not to love." 

“ WiU he prevent it ? " 

Stella hesitated. “ Perhaps not . . . but don't you see, 
mother. Love stopped all my work before, it might stop it 
again." 

“ Then you think you might love him if you saw him ? " 

“ I don't know . . . I'm afraid of myself . . . supposing I 
never can love : I thought I loved Vernon : perhaps it is only 
that I love being made love to." 

‘‘ You were too young to know." 

There was a moment's silence. 

“ What must I tell him, dear ? . . . I think he has 
suffered : don't be too callous of his feelings for you." 

‘‘ Tell him I am sorry, mother, that is all." 

Mrs. Lekejian put her hand on her child's forehead and 
looked into her eyes. “ Dearest, I know very little about 
this man, but what I have seen of him I like and admire, 
and something tells me that, if you send him away comfort- 
less, you are sending away your hapj)uiess." 

‘‘ Do you want me to leave you, mother ? " 

‘‘ My dear, perverse child, how fractious it is ! Of course I 
don't." She smiled tenderly : the girl's peevish tones were 
so totally unlike her ordinary self that they proved how 
highly nervous her condition was. ‘‘ I will tell him you are 
sorry ... is that all ? ... he has waited, Stella, he says he 
will go on waiting . . . but will you give him no hope ? He 
has crossed Europe to see you — can you expect his feelings 


352 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


to remain the same if you think only of your own and 
nothing of his ? 

Mrs. Lekejian waited. 

“ TeU him I am going to work for Egypt if ever I am well 
enough to do anything again ... he approved of the idea . . . 
tell him that, mother ; tell him that all my life I am going to 
work ... it will be my atonement."" 

Mrs. Lekejian went out of the room and shut the door, 
but she did not go down the stairs, she knew her daughter 
and human nature too well. 

When the door was closed, Stella burst into a flood of 
tears, such relieving tears that much sorrow and striving 
and fear seemed to pass away with them. . . . She called to 
her mother to come back. . . . ‘‘ Mother, mother, how 
beastly I"ve been, how hateful ! Mother, do come back. . . • 
You might have known that I didn"t mean it. ... Oh ! say 
something kind — he is so kind."' 

As though she had heard the cry the next moment Mrs. 
Lekejian was by her side. 

“ Mother ! "" 

‘‘ You called me, dear ? I came back ! "" 

Stella did not answer. 

“ What kind thing shall I tell him, dear ? "" 

‘‘ I am thinking."" 

“ Take your time ... he can wait."" She smiled. “ He"d 
wait for seven years like Jacob, I think."" 

“ He has been so kind, mother, and I wasn"t fair to 
him, not fair from the very fixst ... I was selflsh and 
cruel."" 

‘‘ Yes, dearest,"" Mrs. Lekejian said again. This time the 
old humour, that was hard to kill, lurked in her eyes . . . 
she was perfectly certain that Stella cared for the tall, big 
man downstairs. 

“ Ask him, mother, if he will go away and let me work 
out my own salvation . . . ask him to go away for a whole 
year, tell him not to write to me or to think of me unless 
he can"t help it . . ."" she smiled deliciously as she said the 
words, “ and at the end of the year, this very day year, 
mother, if he likes he can write to me and ask me if he may 
come and see me . . . only don"t promise anything, mother . . . 
let him be free . . . and let me be absolutely free ... I must 
be free, or I shall hate him."" 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


353 


“ Poor fellow ! 

“ If I saw him now, mother, I shouldn't even say that ; I 
can only say it through you." 

Stella laid herself down again wearily. “ I'm so tired, 
mother; send him away." 

“ I know you are, dear — ^try and sleep. I will go and 
comfort him as best I can. I know you are not in a fit 
state to be troubled, but this may mean your happiness 
. . . that is why I have tired you." 

When Mrs. Lekejian opened the door Michael Ireton 
turned swiftly round — he was standing with his back to the 
door when she entered. “ How long you have been ! " he 
said. “ Will she see me ? " 

‘‘ She is really not well enough to see you ... I am so 
sorry," she spoke with a kindly little shake of the head . . . 
“it is wiser not to urge it." 

“ Did she not even send me a message ? If you only 
knew how much it means to me ! " ^ 

“ I think I do . . . and she is not unkind ; remember her 
system has had a severe shock. You must make allowances 
— she is very highly strung, she craves for rest for body 
and soul." 

“ I understand," he said, “ but will you let me hope ? 
You have always been so kind, will you accept me if ever 
Stella does ? " 

During their conversation not one word had been defi- 
nitely spoken on the subject of marriage or even love, but 
Mrs. Lekejian understood the intentions of the man before 
he had even asked her if he might see her daughter. His 
whole being had asked the question, “ May I marry your 
daughter if she will have me ? " 

With a winning gentleness which is the abiding charm 
of very feminine women, Mrs. Lekejian said : “ Yes, I will 
accept you and I will hope for you, because I believe that 
my daughter does care for you, and that her future happi* 
ness lies in your hands, although just at present all sug- 
gestion of any such love as you feel for her is odious to her. 
Do you understand ? . . . I wonder if any man can ? . . . ifc 
is not you, it is the idea of love itself after ..." she looked 
at him, pleading his full understanding of her words. 

“ I know," he said, “ I can wait ... I can go on waiting 
... I have waited for her all my life." 

23 


354 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


“ Death has been too near to us/" she said softly, “ for 
the child to think of love ... it hurts her."" 

‘‘ I can wait,"" he repeated ; “ her feelings are perfectly 
natural under the circumstances. Miss MacNaughtan told 
me about your troubles and sorrows."" He expressed no 
conventional forms of sympathy. 

“ Stella has sent you a message ! "" 

Michael Ireton looked eagerly at the sensitive face, again 
so reminiscent of Stella. 

“ She asks you not to write to her or think about her for 
a year"" — ^she smiled — ‘‘that is to say, if you can help it : 
these are Stella"s own words."" A light of sympathy shone 
in her eyes for the man whose face had fallen like a 
chnd"s. 

“ At the end of the year . . . this very day year,"" she said, 
“ if you still care you may write. ... No ! no, go slowly, 
there is no promise, nothing really definite . . . but it is the 
most hopeful plan, even if it seems hard : but remember 
you are to be free, absolutely free."" 

“ I"ll come,"" he said, drawing out his watch, “ at 6.45 this 
day year."" 

Mrs. Lekejian laughed. “ You certainly deserve to 
succeed — ^and how difficult girls are! — but don"t feel too 
oertain : remember Stella only told me to tell you that you 
may write to her at the end of the year if ... if you have not 
forgotten her, if you still feel for her as you do now . . . 
these were her very words."" 

He sighed — it was the sigh of a man who had been strung 
to the limit of endurance. “ I must be thankful,"" he said, 

for small mercies, and I am ; but we are never content : 
the knowledge that she was free to be won seemed to be 
enough for my happiness a fortnight ago, now I want . . 

Mrs. Lekejian put her hand on his. “ She is more than 
half won already, I think, but she doesn"t know it ; or if 
she does she is rebelling against it for the time being . . . 
she is afraid of . . ."" her eyes met Michael Ireton"s . . . “ you 
know what I mean . . . afraid of love — a ‘ lover "s love." She 
craves for her father"s love, the love that is quickened with 
affection, not passion."" 

“ I understand : my best chance is to go away — I will 
take your advice."" 

“ Yes, go away and allow her to miss you ! "" she smiled. 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 355 

‘ and she will miss you, for every woman needs devotion, 
and Stella has always had it.” 

“ A year is such a long time,"^ he said ; “ supposing some 
one else offers her that devotion/" 

“ Would she be worth the winning if any man"s love 
would do ? "" 

“ What"s worth and what isn"t worth doesn"t enter into 
love : once the malady"s ripe, it"s a terrible thing/" 

“ You are quite right, it is a terrible thing, a cruel thing. 
But I must return to Stella. You are strong, so be brave ; 
you are not like poor Girgis, who looked so strong and was 
so weak."" 

“ I mean to live for her . . . Girgis died for her . . . that is 
the difference."" 

He raised her hand to his lips. “ Pray God you may be 
my mother some day,"" he said earnestly. 

Tears were in the eyes that answered him as she said, with 
the undying Irish in her voice asserting itself, “ I"ll pray 
too."" 


CHAPTER XXXIV 


It was the hour of sunset in Cairo — that magic hour in the 
East when the most worldly mind is moved hy the Infinite 
Being of God. Stella Lekejian was coming out of the 
Coptic schoolroom w^here she had been teaching. Her 
long day's work was done ! 

Her pupils, who were aU closely veiled women belonging 
to the lower-middle classes, were hurrying in twos and three 
to their various homes. Some of them, though wives and 
mothers, were girls just emerging from childhood. To 
the casual observer these closely veiled figures looked like 
ordinary Cairene Moslem women — their shapeless black 
garments differed not one whit from all the others — but on 
a closer examination you could see that their dark eyes, 
whose heavy lids were blackened with kohl, were larger 
and more elongated, and that they inclined slightly up- 
wards from the nose. Also, if you looked, you could find, 
among the tattoo marks which decorated their wrists and 
faces, the distinguishing sign of their sect — a little cross, 
the emblem of Christ's suffering. It was on each woman, 
mixed up somewhere with many other strange devices, 
some of which were pagan and unlovely in their origin. 
These blue marks do not, even to the Western eye, detract 
altogether from the comeliness of the women's appearance. 

Their attitude towards Stella resembled the devotion of 
English Sunday-school children to their teachers. Each 
day they brought her little bunches of odorous jasmine 
and early sprays of tuberose. During the year she had 
worked amongst them and held meetings of various kmds, 
in the beautiful little school -house which her mother had 
built and endowed as a memorial to her father, Stella had 
endeared herself to these primitive women. 

At first they had only come in twos and threes, and had 
shrunk from any form of intimacy, but gradually their 

356 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


357 


numbers had increased until the largest class-room in the 
building was not big enough to hold them. She had been 
wise enough to leave religious instruction and discussions 
severely alone, for although her father had been a strict 
Uniat- Copt all his life, she herself had been brought up in 
the Church of England, and in Cairo the English Protestants 
are almost as much disliked by the various sects of the 
Copts as the members of the Greek Church. Between the 
Copts and the Greeks there is an undying feud. 

Naturally she had found it quite impossible to do any- 
thing with the Moslem women, at least by any direct means ; 
but indirectly she had seen the seeds of her untiring efforts 
bearing fruit. One young mother had actually come to 
her and asked her to help her in the curing of her baby^s 
eyes from ophthalmia — this was not, of course, until she 
had tried every charm and had failed. Having seen the 
complete recovery of a little Coptic child from the same 
disease, whom Stella had cured with the simple remedy of 
cleanliness, she had at last been given permission by her 
husband to seek Stella’s advice. After this, many Moslem 
women came to her for help, although they were not per- 
mitted to attend her classes. 

During the year her busy life had left her little time for 
reflection ; but it gave her a satisfaction she had never 
experienced before — the satisfaction of feeling that she 
was at last of some practical good in the world, that her 
reason for existence was justified — and, oddly enough, the 
trivial things of life, the things she had once envied, were 
now offered to her ungrudgingly. She would have found 
a warm welcome in most of the houses of the resident 
English in Cairo if she had chosen to go there, for sud- 
denly their doors had been opened to her ! She never 
even questioned the reason why this change had taken 
place in their attitude towards her, for she was now far 
more than formerly in close touch with the native popula- 
tion. There was only one house that she visited, for the 
iron of bitterness had entered her soul too deeply, in the 
days of her impressionable girlhood, ever to allow her to 
accept even the most sincerely offered tokens of hospitality 
and friendship. It was only in the house of a celebrated 
lady doctor, whose kindness to the poor had won Stella’s 
admiration and devotion, that she was perfectly happy, 


358 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


and it was only there that she used to allow her mind to 
dwell upon the possible joy that awaited her in the future. 
It was when she saw the husband and wife working together 
in the common cause of humanity — for they were both 
doctors — that she used to dream dreams of what happiness 
might be hers when her year of probation was over. In the 
3^ears to come perhaps Michael and she would work together 
and play together and find life sweet together, as these two 
friends did. 

Why the stiff-necked English had suddenly unbent to 
her Stella was never to know ! Perhaps it was out of 
sympathy for the splendid work she was doing, perhaps 
it was as a token of their admiration for her rejection 
of a British officer, or it may have been because old 
Nicolas Lekejian, their faithful ally and ungrudging sup- 
porter, was dead, or because the head of the house was 
no longer a Syrian, for Nicolas the younger, now that his 
music was an assured success, was busy m Paris for a greater 
part of the year. Be it as it may, the invitations Stella 
received were refused on the grounds that her work left 
her no time for society, which was perfectly true. 

On this particular evening, as Stella followed the little 
company of Coptic women from the door of their school- 
house, whose pleasant courtyard was shaded with an ancient 
sycamore tree and one tall Victoria palm, her mind was 
disturbed with personal emotions. Her usual sympathy 
with her pupils had in a measure been absent, she had felt 
herself incapable of putting aside her own interests and 
throwing herself wholeheartedly into her work as she 
usually did. During the long hours she had been sewing 
and speaking to the women, and teaching the girls to read 
and write, a letter she had received from Michael Ireton 
in the morning had been fluttering in her bosom like the 
wings of a bird. It was in reality lying securely in its 
envelope in her pocket, yet she felt it in her bosom like a 
living thing trying to get free — a thing trying to gain 
dominion over her struggling senses. It had been the one 
living, active thing in the room. She had not heard from 
her lover since she had sent him away with the request that 
he would not write to her for one year. 

And now, on this very evening when the year of probation 
had expired, Michael Ireton was in Egypt ! He must have 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


359 


received her letter in answer to his, asking her to let him 
come and see her ; he had asked if she was ready to allow 
him to help her in the work she was doing. 

She had written to tell him that he might come, for his 
letter had stirred into full being the love that had grown 
and strengthened while it had silently slept in her bosom. 
During the year of engrossing work it had unconsciously 
given beauty and meaning to every law and force in the 
natural and spiritual world. It was an unconscious 
development of love, for, with a seK-control which had 
increased her capacity for work and had strengthened her 
physical being, she had during the year succeeded in forcing 
into the background of her life all concrete thoughts of love, 
along with all personal matters — matters at least which 
related to her feelings for Ireton. She had tried to banish 
him from her mind for her work's sake, and, as a test of 
the enduring quality of her love for him during the period 
she had fixed for their separation, she had determined to 
work with one sole purpose in view — ^the regeneration of 
the Egyptian women. If at the end of a year's time Michael 
still cared for her and she still cared for him, surely their 
love would be enduring. 

Now, in this supreme hour of Egypt's beauty, when the 
spell of its light was transforming the world into a kingdom 
of heavenly glory, Stella unreservedly surrendered herself 
to the joy of her new happiness. It seemed to her, as she 
watched the black-robed figures of the Coptic women 
disappearing into the golden distance, that the whole world 
was bathed in a fiame of Love : she let it envelop her until 
she was lost in its mystery. Only the golden silence and 
the limitless space of wondrous light existed. 


CHAPTER XXXV 


The next morning Stella asked her mother if they might 
have their morning coffee and fruit in the mandarah — the 
large apartment on the ground floor of the house, where, 
in days gone by, only male visitors were received. 

They were sitting on a low seat encircling the wide window 
which looked out upon the courtyard, in the portion of the 
room called the durkaah. Here the marble floor was sunk 
about six or seven inches, and in its centre was a beautiful 
fountain, composed of three shallow basins raised on slender 
shafts, one on the top of the other. From the highest fitful 
sprays of clear water sprang into the air and down again, 
the diamond drops falling into a sunken basin, of Byzantine 
design, whose marbled lining was jewelled with priceless 
tiles and pieces of precious stones. The lofty walls and 
the floor of the stately apartment were marble-lined and 
showed here and there Oriental designs in antique tiles of 
lustrous Persian hues. 

It was a delightful apartment in the hot weather, for the 
plash, plash of the falling water was cooling to the senses, 
and the entire absence of upholstered furniture, or indeed 
any kind of furniture, kept the atmosphere pure and fresh. 
Their coffee was placed on a white marble table of classic 
shape, such as one sees in the best houses in Pompeii. Its 
legs, which terminated in lions^ claws, were securely fixed 
to the floor. The only seats in the mandarah were low 
benches fitting round the wide oriel window. 

The morning post had just arrived, but the appearance 
of a number of letters *had not interrupted the absorbing 
conversation between mother and daughter. They were 
discussing the momentous question of Michael Ireton's 
letter and of his arrival in Cairo the night before. 

“ Yes, he has waited for a whole year, but I didn't ask 
him to, mother — he needn't have done it ! He was perfectly 

360 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 361 

free to choose any other girl he met . . . don't look like 
that." Stella held out her hand imploringly. 

“ I didn't mean to look like anything, dear," her mother 
said laughingly, “ but to me it seems so strange, so un- 
necessary, when you might have been together : there are 
none too many years allotted to any of us for youth and 
happiness — ^you'U find that, my darling — why squander one 
of them ? " 

“ But I've not squandered it, mother, it has been a 
precious year — it has given me heaps of things, and a kind 
of happiness I never knew before. I've been doing work I 
love, work Michael knows I never mean to give up, and at 
the same time I've tested the endurance of my feelings for 
him and of his for me." She sighed contentedly. “ You can't 
think how much each day of this year has added to my love 
for him, and from his letter," her colour deepened as she 
thought of it, “ I don't think he cares for me any the less." 

I'm so thankful, dearest, and I believe he is almost 
worthy of you ; I liked the little I saw of him, and your 
father admired him." 

“ Almost ! " the girl spoke scornfully of her mother's quali- 
fying adjective — “ almost ! he's worth a himdred of me." 

“ To me, darling, naturally no man is quite good enough 
for you . . . but certainly you could never be happy with. 
a man who had not exceptional brains and a strong in- 
dividuality : I think hell manage you ! " 

SteUa Imew what her mother's words were intended to 
Imply — that in character and temperament Michael Ireton 
was suited to her in a way which Vernon Thorpe had never 
been. 

“ I understood him and he understood me — at least, we 
were in perfect sympathy with each other from the very 
first moment we met . . . and as the days went by in Luxor 
his companionship showed me how very little I had in 
common with Vernon Thorpe. I grew painfuUy conscious 
of the fact that when we were not talking about our feelings 
for each other, or he was not actually making love, that 
there was a total dearth of intellectual interests and con- 
versation between us. I used to like him because he was 
nice and what is termed generally ‘ a good sort,' but it 
was Michael who had the gift of making life interesting, of 
making one forget things that didn't matter." 


362 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


And knowing all this, Stella, you have made the poor 
man wait for a whole year after all he had suffered while 
you were engaged. Poor fellow ! . . she smiled as she 
looked at her daughter lovingly. She was glad for both 
their sakes that the year was over. She was glad also 
that it had certainly added to rather than detracted 
from Stella's good looks. There was now a permanent 
glow of good health and an atmosphere of vitality about 
her which had been only a fluctuating quality in the old 
days. Her busy life had given her this and much more. 

A pause in the conversation followed, while Mrs. Lekejian 
took up her letters and glanced at the handwritings on the 
envelopes. “ One from Nancy," she said brightly, “ and 
. . . how strange ! one from Nicolas as well." She started. 
“ Why . . . they are both from the same hotel." She 
pointed to the name of the hotel stamped on the envelope : 
she looked at Stella signiflcantly as she impatiently tore 
the letter open. When she had only read a few words she 
cried out, “ Stella, they're married ! Listen. . . ." 

“ My Darling Mother and Stella, 

‘‘ Nicolas and I were married this morning, and I'm 
the happiest girl in the world. I will tell you all about 
everything and how it came to pass, when we meet — it's 
quite a romance. W^e are just off to Italy, where we are going 
to ‘ moon ' for a heavenly fortnight. Then we sail from 
Naples, and will be with you in about three weeks. Nicolas 
says we are all to go up the Nile by Cook's first pleasure 
boat, so do make plans, and don't disappoint us. 

‘‘ Your loving daughter, 

Nancy Lekejian. 

“ P.S. — Tliis is the first time I've signed myself Lekejian 
except in church in the register." 

Mrs. Lekejian 's whole being was expressive of an almost 
girlish delight. Her affection for Nancy was very genuine, 
and she knew how deeply her son had felt his unselfish 
renunciation of the girl's love for him. She looked to 
Stella for the sympathy she knew she would receive. 

‘‘ I'm so glad, so frightfully glad," Stella said. ‘‘ Dear 
little Nancy, how happy they will be ! I suppose they are 
eating their breakfast together as husband and wife ! 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 


36a 


What fun ! Be quick, darling, and open Nicolas's letter. 
I do wonder if he will tell us how it happened, I so want 
to know all about it." 

Mrs. Lekejian's voice was breathless with excitement 
as she read aloud her son's brief announcement of his 
marriage. 

‘‘ Darling Mother, 

“ Nancy is now my wife, and I am the happiest man 
on God's earth. I can't Avrite, but we shall both see yon 
soon, and I know that you will rejoice at my happiness. 

Your loving son, 

‘‘ Nicolas." 

Now that he's a celebrity I suppose he considered 
himself more worthy of being her husband . . . dear old 
Nicolas. . . ." Stella spoke tenderly, then suddenly she 
gave a nervous sigh. “ Mother, I'm afraid to-day's going 
to be too good to be true." As she spoke she looked 
at the little gold watch, surrounded by diamonds, which 
she wore on her wrist — her father's last birthday gift. It 
wanted only twenty minutes until her lover's arrival. ‘‘ Do 
you think anything will happen to him before he gets 
here ? " she said anxiously. “ Nancy's good news and mine 
seem really too much." She was trembling at the thought 
of such overwhelming happiness. 

At that very moment a servant came with gliding native 
movements up the long room to where they sat. With a low 
salaam at his mistress's knees, he said, ‘‘ A gentleman has 
arrived, sitt, but he says he will wait if he is too early ; it 
is the ‘ tall big ' gentleman, sitt” 

Stella's face flushed crimson. ‘‘ Oh, mother, it's 
Michael ! " 

She looked nervously round the room ; at that moment 
she would have escaped if she could, for her curious virginal 
shrinking from the meeting with her future husband over- 
whelmed her deeper desire to see him. The joy of ex- 
pecting him had been too suddenly terminated by his^ 
arrival — she would gladly have postponed it ; but Mrs. 
Lekejian, understanding this side of her daughter's complex 
nature, rose from her seat very quickly and left the room. 
“ I will send him to you, Stella," she said ; “ don't be 


364 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


foolish — ^you are not a child — and do give him the welcome he 
deserves/' She looked at the moment much more pleased 
than her shrinking daughter. But her voice had laughter 
lurking in it, though it was stern enough to bring Stella 
quickly up against the fact that her future happiness did 
depend upon her self-control in the next few moments. 

When her mother met Michael Ireton she said, So the 
year has passed and you have come : you need not explain." 
He grasped her hand gratefully. “ I give my child to you 
willingly, for I know that she loves you and you will make 
her happy. Yusuf will take you to her . . . she is waiting 
for you." She held his hand in hers for a moment longer . . . 

You will be wise, Michael, I think, to take the bull by the 
horns . . . Stella is frightfully nervous." Her merry eyes 
expressed clearly all that she could not tell him. As she 
hurried away she said, “Goto her quickly; I will see you 
later on." 

When Michael Ireton entered the impressively Eastern 
room he did not hesitate to take Mrs. Lekejian's advice: in 
two long strides he seemed to cross its great length and 
reach the window where Stella was standing, nervously 
waiting for him. Without one word of greeting he swiftly 
^nd masterfully enfolded her in his arms. 

“ No," he said, “ not yet, don't try to struggle. . . . You 
are mine, mine at last and for ever." He bent his head 
to her shrinking face and covered it with kisses, kisses which 
made the girl realize how utterly useless it was to protest. 
Her moment of surrender had come. 

Nor did she wish to protest, for the joy of experiencmg 
the strength of his manhood, of at last feeling the comfort 
of his strong embrace, was exquisite to her senses. If she 
had been conscious she would have wished that moment 
never to end. 

With his lips on her lips she felt as though she was floating 
through a world of space, to some unknown shore, in the 
strong arms of love. 

And when he held her passionately from him, at arm's 
length, to look at her with ardent eyes, she said : “ Dearest, 
oan you forgive me ? " 

“ Tell me you love me, and I will forgive you everything, 
all the waiting and the hunger of years." 


A WIFE OUT OP EGYPT 365 

“ I love you,” she said simply, “ more than anything in 
all the world ; I have always loved you.” 

“ Then, darling, why did you send me away ? why did 
you waste one year of our life ? 

She was crushed to him tenderly again : his hunger for the 
nearness of her beauty, for the fragrance of her being, was 
demanding its justification. “ How could you have done 
it ? he said, lifting his lips from hers to gaze into her love- 
warmed eyes, “ how could you ? 

‘‘ I did it,'' she said, “ because I wanted to know if my 
love was worthy of you. I was afraid : it was for your 
sake, for the sake of our love ! " 

‘‘ My darling," he drew her back to him, “ you worthy of 
me ! — how could you doubt it ? . . . Oh, my darling." 

“ Did you mind so very much ? I had to do it, the Fates 
made me ; I can't explain just why, but they did. It's aU 
over now," she gave a tired sigh, a sigh of perfect content, 
a sigh of absolute thankfulness for his presence and for 
the acknowledgment of their love. 

‘‘ The waiting was worth it," he said eagerly, “ if it has 
done what you wished : I would have waited a thousand 
years." 

“ It has done far more ! Things could never have been 
so wonderful if I hadn't learned to know how much I wanted 
you, how much I missed you, how afraid I grew that you 
might love some one else." 

“ Then thank God I waited," Michael Ireton said briefly 
“ but you are not going to send me away again , Hadassah, 
with any more indefinite promises. I am going to make 
you my wife whether you will or won't ! " 

‘‘ But I will, dearest — I am ready." With an exquisite 
shyness she kissed him for the first time without his de- 
manding it. ‘'I will whenever you like ; I know now that 
I'm not afraid." 

With a fierce joy which made her serious face break into 
smiles he caught her to him and hugged her like a delighted 
boy. ‘‘ Thank God ! " he said, but I can hardly believe 
it's true, things have been so hard ... so hard and cruel, 
and now everything seems too good to be true." 

“ I think we certainly must do something to appease the 
jealousy of the gods," she held up her silver hand of Fatma 
‘‘ yet we have surely suffered enough, and I have worn this 


366 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


so constantly, Fatma ought to reward us by averting their 
envious eyes. I don't wonder they're jealous of us, do 
you ? " Her lips invited a caress. 

And this," Michael said, raising the rough heart of 
green stone. His eyes reminded her of the day he had foimd 
it in the temple of Luxor. A warm blush dyed her face as 
his eyes insisted upon her answer. 

“ I hope it will do its work, dearest, for women when 
they love are the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." 

He pressed his lips to her hand which held the ancient 
amulet — an ecstasy of passion shone in his eyes as his mind 
travelled out to meet hers in the days that were to come. 

“ It is so glorious, Michael, to know that we may love each 
other, to know that you may do as you once said you could 
do if you might, and now you may ! " 

“ W^at was that ? What did I say ? " 

“ You once said, ‘ I could love you madly, Hadassah, if I 
might.' I have never forgotten it . . . often and often I have 
driven the words from my ears, often and often I have 
wanted to feel that ‘ mad love ' ... it was horrible to know 
that I had to stamp on it and crush it and kill it, that 
your dear affection was all wrong." 

‘‘ And yet, when I found you and you were free, you sent 
me away. ... I thought you didn't care for me." Again 
he said, “ How could you ? " 

‘‘ I was ill then, I was sick of the very name of love — ^love 
had brought such misery, Michael : poor Girgis loved me ; 
if I had never thought that I loved Vernon, how much 
sorrow and remorse would have been saved ! " 

“ I know, dearest. I was a selfish brute to come at that 
time — I should have waited ; but that night when Vernon 
saved your father's life I thought you cared ... it gave me 
the courage ; I thought you cared when you asked me to 
stay." 

And so I did care," she said, “ I always cared ; I cared 
from the very first time I saw you, I have always cared ; I 
think I must have cared for you in my former incarnation 
. . . perhaps I was your dog and fed from your hand." 

In the years that were to come there would be time to 
talk and talk, and to explain. Now he could not spare her 
dear lips from the perfection of love. In his arms, which 
had wanted her so long, Stella could only speak to him in 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 367 

broken sentences . . . and, man-like, he was perfectly con- 
tented with silence when it was so golden. 

It was after midday when Mrs. Lekejian returned to 
the mandarah. She entered it a little nervously, for it is 
always an unpleasant duty to disturb lately united lovers, 
but Michael Ireton put her instantly at her ease by saying : 
“ Hadassah has promised to marry me as soon as it can be 
managed : will you accept me as your son ? "" He stooped 
down and kissed her, thinking to himself as he did so how 
delightful a thing it would be to have this gentle personality, 
this woman whose blue eyes could never wholly banish 
their smiles, for his mother-in-law. 

She turned swiftly to Stella, while she held out her two 
hands to Michael : “ I'm so glad ! I knew she loved you " 
— ^her eyes warmed to the man who seemed to tower above 
her like a giant — “ but I knew you w^ould have to capture 
her by strategy if you wished to marry her. . . Her 
voice trembled. “You will be good to my baby ... I 
heard that my son was married yesterday ... I shall be 
all alone now." 

He held her slender hands in his two big ones more 
tightly. “ Indeed, you won't be alone ; there's surely 
plenty of room for us all here . . ." he looked round the 
splendid hall. “ For at least six months in each year 
I've promised to help Hadassah with her work — not to 
hinder it, you know — and for the rest of the year we're going 
to live wherever our fancy pleases us . . . wherever you 
and Hadassah think best." 

Tears sprang into Mrs. Lekejian's eyes. “ Then you 
won't take her away from me ? How kind ! I should be 
quite alone ! " 

Stella flung her arms round her mother's neck : “ Michael 
is really the nicest thing that ever happened," she said, 
“ the nicest thing in the whole world ; he couldn't do a 
nasty or cruel thing if he tried : he would never take me 
away from you. He's going to have a mother now to spoil 
him, as well as a wife." She turned her love-bright eyes to 
her lover : “ Mother's a darling, Michael ; she'll not be a bit 
an ‘ in-law,' for she's really much younger than I am." She 
paused. “ I grew up the first time I ever saw you, mother 
has never reaUy grown up yet . . Stella scanned her 


368 


A WIFE OUT OF EGYPT 


mother tenderly from head to foot, and then looked at her 
lover — ‘‘ but shell just have to look a little older now, if 
she's going to have you for an ‘ in-law ' . . . you're such a 
big thing, dear, I think you ought to be able to take care of 
us both." 

By way of answering her he put a protecting arm roimd 
each of the women and drew them to him. ‘‘ I'll do my 
best," he said simply ; God knows how I mean to try." 

‘‘ If only father had kno^vn," Stella said, “ there would 
have been nothing left to wish for." 

“ But he does know, dear, I never doubt that ... I 
couldn't live and doubt it." 

As Mrs. Lekejian said the words Michael Ireton under- 
stood the reason how, in spite of all her suffering, she had 
kept her child's heart, and why her husband had so adored 
her. One moment before he had thought his human happi- 
ness could not be added to, but the expression in her eyes 
had suddenly shown him fresh reasons for gratitude ; a 
new chord had awakened in his manhood — the tenderness 
of a son for his mother. “ Little mother," he said, ‘‘ I will 
do my utmost to make his child happy and to be a good 
son to his wife. . . ." 


Printed hy Hazelly Watson & Viney^ Ld.^ London aiid Aylesbury, 







• t t 


s 


*r 


I 




I 


\ 


► 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



